Research Activity at Montana Tech

Joseph F. Figueira, Ph.D.
Office of Research and Graduate Studies

Montana Tech was founded as a land-grant institution by federal legislation in 1889 and state legislation in 1893 that required the establishment of a state School of Mines. Research activity in the early days of the School of Mines was primarily focused on extractive minerals. Today, this research focus has broadened to include efforts in the colleges of Mathematics and Sciences; Engineering; and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Information Technology as well as the School of Mines and the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.

This diversification has lead to a continual growth in research funding over the decade. Figure 1 shows the 500% increase in research expenditures by Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology and the Montana Tech faculty over the last 11 years. Although the total research effort continues to grow, we are beginning to see the effects of continuing controls on faculty positions. Research productivity by Tech faculty has stabilized and institutional growth is due entirely to the 31% increase in the research productivity of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.

In FY98, the campus proposed $25,080,900 of new research work to state, federal, and industrial funding sources and was awarded $13,200,000 of new research grants. This represents a 53% success rate, up slightly from the 45% success rate of FY 1997.

The funds generated by our research programs continue to support a range of infrastructure and outreach activities on campus that include graduate student salaries, administrative expenses, research facility renovations, capital equipment purchases, matching funds for federal grants, faculty seed grants, library, undergraduate research programs, and the Montana regional science fair.