According to a report issued by the National Science Foundation, Penn State has spent $657 million on research-related activities during Penn State's last fiscal year, continuing a 20-year trend of increased research expenditures at Penn State.

Penn State's spending between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, places the university in 11th place nationally among public and private universities and second in industry-sponsored research. The report, which was issued at the last University Faculty Senate meeting, showed that Penn State has received 57 percent of its funds from federal dollars, which equals about $372 million.

Expenditures from the commonwealth accounted for about $88 million, industrial grants and contracts accounted for about $93 million, and the university itself accounted for about $104 million.

The money is spent on research materials and research projects within each research facility.

Although Penn State is currently in 11th place, the university was ranked ninth among fellow research public and private institutions in 2004.

Eva Pell, Penn State senior vice president for research, said too much is made out of Penn State's ranking compared to other universities. She added, however, that the university is always striving to do better than the previous year's rankings.

Pell also said that the actual number differences between ninth place and 11th place are only a matter of a couple million dollars.

"We are all clustered together, so we bounce around [in rankings]. I think the smartest thing to do is to say we are among the top 15 research institutions in the nation," Pell said.

Penn State finished second in industry-sponsored research -- research work that is funded by and done for companies in the pharmaceutical, coal and petroleum sectors. Duke University placed first.

As for the research facilities and materials that the funds support, Pell said they are state-of -the-art, and students benefit greatly from them.

"Students that want to study at Penn State and want to get state-of-the-art equipment can do it," Pell said.

Penn State professor of physics Julian Maynard said it isn't so much the research facilities and materials that attract students, but the quality education offered at Penn State.

"Other countries may have more well-equipped labs, but students still come here for a graduate education because there is a tradition of excellent quality research done in the U.S," Maynard said.