OARDC researchers contribute to state, national, and international knowledge in key areas.  In fiscal year 2005, OARDC scientists attracted $31.9 million in grants and contracts.  The top ten grants follow.

• Joyce McDowell received $2,428,601 from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for the Ohio Family Nutrition Program (FNP). The FNP reaches 65,000 Ohioans with research-based nutrition information on making healthy food choices with a restricted budget.
• Floyd Schanbacher, Mark Morrison, and Lynn Willett received $1,500,351 for development and commercialization of an integrated biomass to electricity system which will turn agricultural and food processing wastes into energy.
• Steven Moeller, Martha Belury, Francis Fluharty, David Mangione, and Henry Zerby received $952,046 from USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service for an Ohio family farm value-based beef marketing initiative.
• Robert Gates, Stanley Gehrt, Amanda Rodewald, and Paul Rodewald received $500,000 from the Ohio Division of Wildlife for a terrestrial wildlife ecology lab.
• Linda Saif received $474,951 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study a swine virus, known as porcine respiratory coronavirus, that affects the respiratory tract. The study is expected to help in the fight against SARS.
• Virginie Bouchard received $408,387 from USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service to study the development of ecological processes related to carbon and nutrients cycling in created wetlands.
• Jeff Sharp, Elena Irwin, and Lawrence Libby received $400,600 from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program to study agricultural adaptation at the rural-urban interface and to answer the question: Can communities make a difference?
• Stanley Gehrt received $376,111 from the National Science Foundation to study modeling ecology, dynamics, and the spatial spread of raccoon rabies.
• Joy Pate received $375,000 from USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service to research Paracrine factors regulating immune cell function in the bovine corpus luteum.
• Sophien Kamoun received $365,606 from USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service to study the role of Phytophthora infestans protease inhibitors and their target tomato proteases in disease.