Officials at Iowa State University say external funding for grants, gifts and research projects increased three-point-five percent last year to a record 225-point-three million dollars. Vice Provost Wolfgang Kliemann says the U-S Department of Agriculture was the largest federal contributor to the Ames school– sending over 45 million to ISU. The Department of Energy contributed the second most federal funds with 30 million dollars. Kliemann says they’ve been able to increase external funding, despite being hampered by cuts in state funding.He says the cuts in state funding make it harder to retain quality faculty who go after the contracts and grants that bring in the external funding. Kliemann says the external funds don’t make up for cuts in state funding.He says the external funding is targeted for specific projects and can’t be used to offset cuts in state funding for salaries and other expenses. Kliemann says the external funding plays an important role for the university, and benefits the entire state. He cites the money spent on U-S-D-A research as an example.The U-S-D-A money funds research on commodities, genetics and animals that directly benefit Iowa’s economy. I-S-U’s counterpart, the University of Iowa, announced it received a record 341-million dollars from outside sources last year.