Virginia Tech held steady at No. 55 in the latest rankings of spending at national research universities, ending a two-year decline that saw them fall from the ranks of the top 50.

Research and development expenditures at Virginia Tech increased to $268.8 million in fiscal year 2004 from $247.8 million in 2003, according to a study completed Friday by the National Science Foundation and made available to The Roanoke Times on Tuesday.

The 8.5 percent increase is slightly better than the 7.2 percent increase in the field nationwide. More than $40 billion is spent each year on academic research and development nationally.

The closely watched rankings, while a couple of years behind, are based on the most recent comparative data available.

They include funding from state and federal agencies, private foundations and industry as well as the institutions themselves. They should be available to the public on the NSF Web site, www.nsf.gov, in June.

In explaining Tech's fall to 55th from 52nd in the rankings last year, Virginia Tech Vice President for Research Brad Fenwick said the drop was due to state budget cuts in the 2003 fiscal year that forced Tech to eliminate hundreds of positions.

He predicted last year the state's fiscal crisis would probably affect Tech's NSF ranking again this year before the school started to show gains.

"Holding even is actually good news for us," Fenwick said Tuesday. "We'll do much better next year."

Nationally, academic research growth slowed down this year after two years of double-digit increases.

Fenwick said Tech's research expenditures in fiscal years 2005 and 2006 will show gains of 8 percent to 9 percent in future studies, which should propel Tech ahead of some schools.

"I'd be surprised if, after the next couple of years, we haven't moved into the mid-40s in ranking or even the lower 40s," he said.

In 2000, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger announced a goal for Virginia Tech to move from No. 50 in the NSF rankings to the top 30 by 2010.

Fenwick said reaching the top 30 remains a goal, but the university is looking to change the way it measures itself.

The school is working on a strategic plan update, which could change the language of Tech's goal to increase research spending.

The new goal would be a financial number, probably somewhere around $550 million by 2012, he said.

"We're competing against ourselves to do better every year," Fenwick said. "And then the rankings will take care of themselves."

While Tech did better than recent years in overall research and development spending, it fell the furthest amongst all top 100 universities in federally sponsored research and development, the fastest growing and largest piece of academic R&D.

Tech fell from 80th to 91st in that category as federal funding there dropped from $98.1 million to $95.6 million while nationally federal funding grew by 10.7 percent. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston also dropped 11 places to No. 80.

The University of Virginia, while 12 spots behind Tech in the overall rankings for the second year in a row, is ranked No. 46 in federally sponsored research and development.

But Tech's gains in non-federal funding, where it jumped from 30th to 26th nationally, offset the losses.

And Fenwick said the federal funding trend would soon reverse itself.

Tech didn't fill several positions of retiring professors who had federal grants. Now that those positions are filled, the university is receiving grant awards from the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Health and the U.S. Agency of International Development, he said.

While Fenwick said Tech's improvement won't be a steady trajectory, the new faculty and renewed emphasis on university research by the state will mean Tech's ranking should improve.

"Obviously when the budget cuts hit, that caused this research engine of ours to sputter," he said. "It's really going on all cylinders now."