FROM THE EDITOR

Equine Fundingfor Research

We recently had a graduate student complete hisPh.D. and take a position at Cornell University.Before he left, I had a discussion with him regardingthe expectations for his new research program. Imade the comment that I’m glad I’m not starting overand having to establish a new research program.

Obviously, to do research, one needs research dol-lars. This requires a considerable amount of effort byeach faculty member. If you are in a biomedical sci-ences department, the expectations are that these re-search dollars will come from federal funds, such asNIH, NSF, EPA, and USDA. However, a relativelysmall amount of money is spent by the federal govern-ment on equine research. Generally, the only equineresearch that obtains federal funding is genetic map-ping or infectious diseases.

It so happens that this new faculty member atCornell will be involved in equine reproduction. Thus,sources of funding will be primarily the Grayson-Jockey Club, Morris Animal Foundation, AQHA,AAEP, the pharmaceutical industry, and privatedonors. Grayson-Jockey Club indicated that theywould award approximately $900,000 in grant fundsfor 2006, funding approximately 14 studies. They re-ceived a total of 52 grant proposals requesting about$4.5 million. Morris Animal Foundation plans to pro-vide approximately $523,190 for 12 studies in 2006.The American Quarter Horse Association will makerecommendations to the Executive Board regardingfunding at their annual convention the first week inMarch. It is likely that they will provide approxi-mately $500,000 in funding for 12 to 15 projects.

Another source of funding is the pharmaceuticalindustry. Although many pharmaceutical companieshave in-house research facilities, some of the studiesare outsourced to universities. This source of fundingcan be quite significant, but generally is restrictedspecifically to evaluation of the product of interest byan individual pharmaceutical producer.

Private donors are also a source of funds forequine research. This requires a large effort by indi-vidual faculty members and may take several years todevelop a list of potential donors. From my experi-ence, fund-raising is more friend-raising. The key toprivate donors tends to be developing a research pro-gram that is of interest to the donor and being able toexpress to the donor the need for private support.Private donors can either give directly to specific re-search programs or can give to the agencies men-tioned above. The veterinarian certainly can be ofassistance in identifying potential donors that maywish to participate in a research project or researchprogram at a given university.

The cost of research has certainly escalated overthe past several decades. Generally, the major costsare animal care, labor, and supplies. Costs for animalcare at most universities have increased tremendously,almost to the point of making the university unattrac-tive to pharmaceutical companies for research studies.Furthermore, most universities are extremely inter-ested in assessing an indirect cost on each of the grantsawarded. This indirect cost can be anywhere from 25to 65% of the cost of the grant. These indirect costsare used to support the infrastructure of the university.

I sympathize with the young faculty member who isstepping into a new position and is responsible for ob-taining funds for equine research. My advice is to takea broad approach and apply for funding wherever pos-sible. Another bit of advice would be to collaboratewith as many other investigators as possible, since thiscan spread the cost of research over several universities.

Ed Squires, Editor

82 Journal of Equine Veterinary Science March 2006

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