Chapter 17
Federal Research and Development
in Kansas
• Approximately $165 million of federal R&D funds are spent each year in
Kansas.
• Kansas ranks 39th among the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico in terms of the amount of federal R&D dollars received annually.
• Approximately 3 percent of all federal funds spent in Kansas each year
on matters other than the direct support of individuals (i.e., such entitlements as retirement, disability, and housing assistance) is spent on
R&D.
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–
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HHS
~$39 million
FDA Total Diet Pesticide Research Ctr.
FDA Kansas District Lab
R&D contracts
Project grants
–
–
–
–
DOD
~$77 million
Army Battle lab
ARI unit
R&D contracts
Project grants
Other
~$8 million
– DOC, DOT,
DVA, EPA, etc.
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DOI
~$5 million
– Kansas CFWRU
– Water Resources District Office
– Project grants
NASA
~$5 million
– R&D contracts
– Project grants
DOE
~$5 million
– R&D contracts
– Project grants
NSF
~$12 million
– Project grants
– Cooperative
agreements
USDA
~$14 million
– Grain Marketing and
Production Research Ctr.
– Project grants
Figure 17.1 – Sources of Federal R&D Dollars Spent in Kansas
(Total Federal R&D ~$165 million)
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DISCOVERY AND INNOVATION
Background
In recent years, the federal government has spent in the neighborhood of $165 million annually in Kansas on research and development
(R&D) activities. On average, federal R&D dollars account for approximately 3 percent of all federal funds spent in Kansas each year on
matters other than the direct support of individuals (i.e., such entitlements as retirement, disability, and housing assistance).
Most major federal agencies that currently support federal R&D
efforts provide funding for R&D activities in Kansas. Foremost among
these agencies are the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which account for 47 and
23 percent of all federal R&D dollars spent in the state, respectively.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Interior (DOI), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) account for an additional 9, 7, 3, 3, and 3 percent of all federal dollars spent in Kansas, respectively. The remaining federal R&D
dollars come collectively from the Department of Transportation and
several other federal agencies.17
All federal R&D dollars spent in Kansas either cover the costs of
operating federal R&D units in the state, including paying the salaries
of federal R&D personnel working at these units, or are awarded as
grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to entities in the state. The
following is an overview of what becomes of these federal R&D dollars
once they arrive in Kansas.
Federal R&D Units in Kansas
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is home to DOD’s Fort Leavenworth Research Unit and one of its Battle Command Battle Laboratories.
• The Fort Leavenworth Research Unit is part of DOD’s Army
Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Additional sites are located
17 For
a complete agency-by-agency breakdown of these R&D dollars, see Appendix C.
FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN KANSAS 211
in Fort Rucker, Alabama; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Knox,
Kentucky; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida; Fort
Hood, Texas; Heidelberg, Germany; and Boise, Idaho. It conducts research to develop better training methods for Army
leaders. Specific research activities of this unit include studying
ways to develop the cognitive skills required under conditions of
increased operational complexity, risk, and uncertainty and developing training and educational methods and materials for the
Internet and the classroom. This federal R&D unit annually receives approximately $1.3 million in federal R&D funds, only a
portion of which is spent on in-house R&D activities, and has
about seven civilian personnel directly involved in R&D activities.
• The Battle Command Battle Laboratory is a unit of the Army inside DOD. It is one of 11 battle laboratories established to define the horizontally integrated capabilities required to operate
and field an effective Army. This unit is one of three laboratories focusing specifically on battle command matters. The other
two are in Fort Gordon, Georgia, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Together, the three Battle Command Battle Laboratories
teach the art and science of battle command and information
warfare to commanders to enable them to operate anywhere on
the battlefield, as well as on the move. This particular laboratory
conducts research on issues concerning the concepts and principles of command and provides overall direction for the Battle
Laboratories. Specific R&D activities of this laboratory include studying how commanders lead and decide, how information impacts decisionmaking, and how information flows
in high-performing organizations. This federal unit annually receives about $836,000 of federal R&D funds, only a portion of
which is spent in-house, and has three civilian personnel.
Lawrence, Kansas, is home to DOI’s Kansas District Office of Water
Resources.
• The Kansas District Office of Water Resources is a unit of
DOI’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It oversees the R&D ac-
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tivities of USGS’s National Water-Quality Assessment
(NAWQA), Ground-Water Resources Assessment, Toxic Substances Hydrology, and Federal State Cooperatives programs.
The NAWQA program conducts research on the nation’s surface
and groundwater resources to better understand the effect of
pesticides, erosion, and bacterial contamination on water quality. The Ground-Water Resources Assessment program studies
groundwater systems to develop models and simulations to better understand the workings of these systems. The Toxic Substances Hydrology program studies the behavior of toxic substances in hydrologic environments. These research activities
investigate subsurface contamination at local releases and
aquatic ecosystem contamination on a watershed and regional
scale. The Federal State Cooperatives program studies the effects of agricultural chemicals, floods, droughts, and waste disposal on water supply and groundwater quality. This federal
unit annually receives approximately $1.1 million in federal
R&D funds.
Lenexa, Kansas, is home to HHS’s Total Diet Pesticide Research Center and Kansas District Laboratory.
• The Total Diet Pesticide Research Center is a unit of HHS’s
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is co-located with the
FDA’s Kansas City District Laboratory. The center and laboratory conduct research on pesticide residues in food, as well as
the presence of radionuclides, industrial chemicals, toxic elements, trace and macro elements, vitamin B6, and folic acid.
The levels of pesticides found are used in conjunction with
USDA food consumption data to estimate the total dietary intakes of the pesticide residues. These federal units annually receive approximately $732,000 and have about eight FTEs directly involved in R&D activities.
Manhattan, Kansas, is home to USDA’s Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, and DOI’s Cooperate Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.
FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN KANSAS 213
• The Grain Marketing and Production Research Center is a unit
of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) located on
the campus of Kansas State University. It is composed of three
divisions focusing on marketing of U.S. grain, plant science
and entomology, and wind erosion. One division conducts research on the biochemical components in cereals that are directly related to grain end-use and processing quality. A second
division conducts research to develop rapid automated technologies and instrumentation for wheat classification, grading,
and single-kernel quality assessment and to develop methods for
machine vision assessment of grain and grain product quality
characteristics. The third division conducts research to develop
ecologically based technologies to replace or reduce the use of
traditional pesticides. Specific research activities of the unit include studying the ecology, population dynamics, and behavior
of pest and beneficial insects and investigating new control
techniques based on a knowledge of insect genetics, physiology,
biochemistry, toxicology, and molecular biology. The divisions
focusing on science and entomology and wind erosion are on the
campus of Kansas State University. These federal R&D units
combined annually receive approximately $7.8 million of federal
R&D funds and have about 73 FTEs.
• The Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is
part of DOI’s USGS. It is on the campus of Kansas State University. It conducts research to understand the ecological systems within the Great Plains. Specific research activities of this
unit include studying ways for the diverse endemic wild animals
and habitats to coexist with the human population. This federal
R&D unit annually receives approximately $253,000 and has
three FTEs.
Wichita, Kansas, is home to a Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)
Medical Center.
• While the principal focus of the Wichita VA Medical Center is
providing medical care to veterans, it is also the location of a
number of research activities. In a recent year, this federally
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owned and operated facility was the site of 60 projects with total
funding of approximately $200,000. These R&D activities
focus on a wide range of topics, including drug therapy, neoplasms, and radiotherapy.
Federal R&D Grants to Kansas Entities
Every major institution of higher education in Kansas is the recipient of significant federal R&D dollars each year through grants made
by federal agencies to faculty, graduate students, and research centers.
The vast majority of the R&D grants are made by HHS, NSF, USDA,
and DOE to individual faculty members and therefore ultimately inure
to the benefit of such institutions as the University of Kansas, Kansas
State University, and Wichita State University. The table below shows
the number of R&D grants active in FY 1998, highlighting those
made by HHS, NSF, USDA, and DOE to parties at the various institutions and estimates of the total dollars transferred to them in FY 1998
pursuant to the terms of these grants. Most of the grants in the
“Other Agencies” category going to the University of Kansas are from
NASA ($2 million), while the remainder are split among EPA, DOD,
and the Department of Education. The comparable grants going to
Kansas State include $2 million from EPA and $1 million from DOD.
Table 17.1 – Sources of Federal R&D Grants to Higher Education in Kansas
HHS
Institution
Amount
NSF
# Amount
U of Kansas
Kansas State
Wichita State
Other
$34M 166 $3M
$4M 33 $5M
$1M
5 <$1M
<$1M
1 <$1M
Total
$39M 205
USDA
DOE
Other
Agencies
Total
# Amount # Amount # Amount # Amount #
81 <$1M
3
74 $5M 305
13
0
0
3 <$1M
1
$8M 171
$5M 309
<$1M 9
$4M 14
<$1M 1
<$1M 1
$3M
$4M
<$1M
<$1M
49
31
9
1
$40M 308
$22M 457
$2M 28
<$1M
7
$4M 25
$8M
90
$64M 800
These activities are particularly significant because they fund much
of the “basic research” so critical to expanding our knowledge and un-
FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN KANSAS 215
derstanding of fundamental scientific phenomena. In addition, these
funds account for a substantial portion of the dollars available each
year to various academic departments within these institutions, such as
the Medical Center at the University of Kansas.
Several other nonacademic institutions in Kansas also receive federal R&D grants each year. Foremost among these institutions that received R&D grants in FY 1998 are the Center for Research (located at
the University of Kansas) in Lawrence ($9 million), Eagle Picher Industries, Inc., in Lenexa ($1 million), Via Christi Regional Medical
Center in Wichita ($1 million), and the Kansas State Department of
Health and Environment in Topeka ($500,000).
Scattered among these grants, as well as among the contracts discussed in the section below, are small business innovative research
(SBIR) awards. These are special awards made by the SBIR programs
supported by the 10 federal agencies with annual budgets for extramural R&D of more than $100 million. In a recent year, small businesses in Kansas received 14 SBIR awards totaling close to $4.5 million. Examples include a $750,000 award from the Army to Nantek,
Inc., in Manhattan to develop reactive topical skin protectants against
sulfur mustard and nerve agents and a $750,000 award from HHS to
Edge Enterprises, Inc., in Lawrence for work on community building
strategies for inclusive classrooms.
Also included among these grants are formula grants from federal
agencies. Formula grants differ from the much more common project
grants in that the money transmitted through formula grants is allocated to a state or one of its subdivisions in accordance with a distribution formula prescribed by law or regulation. Among the formula
grants benefiting Kansas are ones valued at more than $3.3 million
from USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service (CSREES) to State Agricultural Experiment Stations, forestry
schools, and veterinary colleges for the support of research in agriculture, forestry, and animal health and disease. Similarly, a modest formula grant goes from DOI’s USGS to the Water Resources Research
Institute in Kansas every year to foster research in water and water-related problems.
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Other Federal R&D Activities in Kansas
Several entities in Kansas also receive notable sums in the form of
contracts or cooperative agreements from federal agencies for specific
R&D efforts. A large portion of these funds go to AlliedSignal (now
part of Honeywell), which in FY 1998 received close to $6 million
from DOD (Army) for engineering and manufacturing development of
a Mortar Fire Control System. In addition, Boeing Company ($5 million), the Center for Research ($2 million), and Eagle Picher Industries,
Inc. ($1 million), received significant R&D contracts from federal
agencies in FY 1998. Note that these amounts are in addition to the
federal R&D grants also received by the Center for Research and
Eagle Picher Industries. The University of Kansas ($7 million) and
Kansas State University ($500,000) also receive contracts from various
federal agencies to conduct R&D for the federal government. Although these amounts are notable, they do not come close to eclipsing
the funds that these institutions receive from federal R&D grants.
A total of $1.5 million of federal R&D dollars was also received in
FY 1998 by entities located in Kansas in the form of cooperative
agreements. The largest of these cooperative agreements ($750,000 in
FY 1998) came from NSF to the Center for Research in Lawrence to
fund EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) activities. Other federal agencies awarding cooperative agreements to Kansas-based entities include the Department of Interior and
USDA.