Ask Dick Powell why universities perform research, and he'll say it's not for the money. It's for the students.

"It becomes the creative component of their educational experience," said Powell, UA's vice president for research and graduate studies.

But the money doesn't hurt. And research grants and contracts bring UA a lot of it ÷ $285.1 million last year, according to a study examining the university's impact on the local economy.

That money, which makes up about 26 percent of UA's budget, supports more than 3,400 research-related jobs at the university, as well as 1,400 full-time student positions.

Online Link · The study "University of Arizona Research Expenditures: Generating Jobs, Wages and Tax Revenues in the Local Economy," can be found online at http://oed.arizona.edu

Most of that $285 million is federal money that UA researchers must compete for against researchers across the country, said Alberta Charney, who co-authored the study, which was released Friday.

The study also found that UA research contributes nearly $385 million to the state and local economies, generating more than 9,500 jobs across Arizona.

"The University of Arizona, in the language of regional economic development, is a very important player in the local economy," said Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi, the study's other author.

The university last year spent $330 million on research, with about $170 million paying salaries for research employees. Those workers spend most of that money on local goods and services. According to the study, that spending creates nearly 2,500 additional local jobs.

University research also creates more than $20 million in tax revenue across the state.

"(It's) actually a nice contribution from the University of Arizona," Pavlakovich-Kochi said.

That's a lesson the state Legislature might slowly be learning, said President Pete Likins. He said he spends time in Phoenix nearly every week trying to convince legislators that an investment in the universities pays financial dividends across the state.

"It's just damn good business, but it's hard to persuade · legislators that they're not just spending dollars," Likins said. "They're not just investing in some sort of social rat hole."

But until they can resolve a budget crisis that has drained more than $30 million from the UA's budget in the past two years, there's little chance lawmakers will give the universities any money for research facilities, Likins said.

"If the economy gets better in the state, then we can look forward to getting a major thrust at that time," Powell said.

Likins said every dollar spent to pay debt service for a research building brings in $5 in grants and contracts.

Across the nation, most states heavily invest in research, said Bruce Wright, associate vice president for economic development. In Colorado, he said, the state is investing $6 billion in biotechnology.

At UA, the only significant source of state funding for research is the $14 million generated by Proposition 301, a 0.6 percent sales tax voters passed in 2000 to inject money into education. But funding from the Legislature still plays a key role in bringing the $285 million in grants and contracts to the university, Likins said, because the state pays faculty salaries.

Though UA leaders tout the economic impact of research, they and the study's authors say universities would have to research even if they weren't economic engines.

"There's not a choice," Charney said. "In order to bring students to the forefront of knowledge you have to have faculty at the forefront of knowledge."

The opportunity to do research also adds a new dimension to students' university experiences. In Professor Vicki Chandler's plant sciences lab, several student workers said they learn practical solutions to theoretical problems they see in their textbooks.

"You run into the things that you weren't told in class," said Josh White, who was hired as a technician in Chandler's lab after he worked there as an undergraduate.

But it's the economic benefits of research that speak loudest to lawmakers, Likins said. That's a sharp change from when he became a professor in 1964, and universities didn't have to explain the importance of their research. Now, he said, they have to justify their existence.

"We've slowly come to understand that if we don't explain · the value of the contributions universities make the community at large will be starved," Likins said.