Penn State Interim Vice President for Research Neil Sharkey recently announced that the total expenditures of his department hit a new record high of $848.2 million during the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

“The steady growth over the past decade means Penn State is widely recognized as a good steward of the resources it has received,” Sharkey said. “The public and private sectors have confidence and trust in our faculty and students who are engaged in research and creative work, and in the importance of their work to our society.”

$537.3 million of this unprecedented total came from federal funding, which is $30 million more than the previous year. Meanwhile, private sector funding contributed $101 million of the 2013 total. This year’s expense total is a 5 percent increase from last year’s total of $808 million and a 40 percent increase from a decade ago.

Although the fiscal 2013 data has not been released yet, a 2008 study estimated that Penn State produces annual average of $2 billion in economic revenue from the ground-breaking research in fields ranging from engineering to the sciences, from agriculture and the liberal arts to medicine and education. Reports from 2012 reveal that some of the federal departments that work with Penn State include NASA, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and the Department of Health.

With the amount of expenditures consistently rising each year, Penn State’s research department will continue to create new jobs and stimulating the economy with their innovative explorations in virtually every field of study.