UCSF Second Only to Johns Hopkins for NIH Money

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California, San Francisco received nearly $450 million in research and training grants from the National Institutes of Health in 2008, moving it up the list of recipients to second behind Johns Hopkins University, according to the NIH.

“NIH funding has been the foundation of biomedical progress in the United States and validates the quality of the research proposals it supports,” says J. Michael Bishop, UCSF chancellor. “In light of the extremely challenging funding environment, this broad-based support of UCSF research is testament to the caliber of scientific discovery occurring in each of our schools.”

Because of limited funds, only 9.6 percent of research proposals received NIH funding on first submission. That percentage has dwindled consistently in the last 10 years from 23.1 percent, according to the NIH.

The university’s school of dentistry ($18.99 million), school of nursing ($8.97 million) and school of pharmacy ($19.7 million) all ranked first in their field for research funding from the NIH. The school of medicine came in at second ($383.7 million) to Johns Hopkins. UCSF was ranked third in overall funding from the NIH in 2007.

Johns Hopins was followed in funding by University of Pennsylvania ($437.1 million); University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ($423.2 million); and University of Washington ($391.2 million.