OSU’s Impact Felt Across the StateThe University injects $3.5 billion into the Oregon economy annually, but federal funding cuts bring new uncertainty.

Oregon State University’s annual contribution to the state economy exceeds $3.5 billion and supports more than 22,000 jobs, according to an economic impact report released by the university in June.

That equates to $13.18 in value returned to Oregon’s residents for every $1 invested by the state. These benefits are felt across the region, with $2.7 billion landing in the seven counties surrounding OSU’s main campus in Corvallis, $477 million in the Portland metro area and $120.9 million in Central Oregon, home to the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend.

“We deliver tangible and purpose-driven impact to communities rural and urban. From the coast to the high desert, across Oregon’s forests, farms and fields, OSU is an engine for economic prosperity,” said President Jayathi Murthy, who shared the report’s findings at the Portland Metro Chamber’s annual meeting in June.

When you think about innovation, entrepreneurship, research and development, that’s the backbone of the Oregon economy, and that’s what we do here at OSU.

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Oregon State research is a significant part of that impact, providing $797.5 million in value (salaries, taxes and more) as well as 3,300 jobs. The university is one of the state’s largest recipients of federal research dollars, but the future of this funding is now uncertain, as the federal agencies that underwrite much of academic research nationwide drastically reduce their budgets.

Of about 2,400 federally funded projects affiliated with OSU — worth $370 million in federal investment in fiscal year 2024 — 49 had been terminated as of July, with only 12 of those funding sources restored.

Read the full economic impact analysis, conducted by Parker Strategy Group and based on fiscal year 2024 data. See the 2024 Research and Innovation Annual Report here.

A less-talked-about technical change to federal rules also poses a challenge to ongoing work. Grant recipients have traditionally been allowed to bill for the costs of maintaining research faculties and administrative support.

However, several agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, have instituted a new caps on these overhead costs (all temporarily blocked by court cases).  At Oregon State, the cost of this change would total tens of millions of dollars per year.

“Research is not political. Scientists, economists, engineers and other innovators are developing solutions to problems that affect everyone. Federal research funds are also critical for future economic growth and development in our state,” said Brian Wall, OSU associate vice president of research innovation for economic impact.

The university is advocating for federal funding to continue uninterrupted, as part of a group of the nation’s leading research universities that has filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit over frozen grant money. It has also filed declarations in two lawsuits brought by multistate coalitions against the termination of existing grants and changes to reimbursement caps.

“When you think about innovation, entrepreneurship, research and development,” said Wall, “that’s the backbone of the Oregon economy, and that’s what we do here at OSU.”