USM receives a massive funding increase

​Hattiesburg, Miss. - Spring semester starts on Monday for USM. But the university is reminiscing on the success it had in 2015, specifically the fiscal year, which Southern Miss enjoyed a 24.1 percent funding increase.

USM vice president for research, Dr. Gordon Cannon said, "I think that all of our major research units were up in funding last year. It's not because the federal budget went up or anything. It's that we had some unique opportunities associated with the oil. But also, we have a faculty that's constantly on the hunt for resources to promote their research."

USM received a total of $72,976,047. During the primary funding period of the fiscal year, 64 percent originated from federal agencies. While 25 percent came from business and industry.

Cannon said "the next steps is to hire research active faculty as much as the budget allows and to supply them with all the things they need to do the good research and of course some of the money that we're getting for research projects this year. Some of the almost $73 million, a portion of that money is set aside as investment money, so that when new faculty members co

me in, we can populate their laboratories, we can provide them for technical assistance, so that they can go out and find additional funds from the outside."