Johns Hopkins University led all institutions in FY 2024 for total National Institutes of Health ... More
Updated, Feb. 27, 2025: This post has been adjusted to correct the name of the National Institutes of Health.
The newest rankings of research institutions based on National Institutes of Health funding have been released. Once again, Johns Hopkins University leads all U.S. universities and colleges in total NIH support, historically the leading source of biomedical research funding in the nation.
In federal fiscal year 2024, the most recent year for which relatively complete data are available, Hopkins investigators received $857,947,550 in awards, representing an approximately $15 million increase over its prior year total. The rest of the top 10 were:
- University of California, San Francisco $814,929,934
- University of Michigan $733,944,984
- Washington University, St. Louis $732,416,824
- University of Pennsylvania $691,186,108
- University of Pittsburgh $661,207,841
- Massachusetts General Hospital $655,235,087
- Yale University $645,860,184
- Columbia University Health Science $640,305,636
- Stanford University $613,087,148
The funding numbers are compiled annually by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research , under the direction of Robert Roskoski Jr., a retired professor of biochemistry, along with Tristram G. Parslow.
BRIMR has reported on annual NIH awards since 2006, after NIH stopped publishing its own rankings in 2005. It uses data obtained from NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool.
The results are likely to attract particularly close attention this year because of NIH’s recent, highly controversial announcement that it would cap reimbursement for indirect costs incurred on university research at 15%, about half of the 28% it said was the average rate in recent years.
Indirect costs — also known as facilities and administrative costs — include several kinds of overhead that universities must pay when their investigators conduct research. They include items like maintenance of equipment, facility upgrades, the operation of labs, depreciation, utility charges, support staff, accounting, research compliance, legal expenses, and the salaries of key administrators who oversee an institution’s research programs.
The 15% cap would reduce billions in funding for universities, but it currently is on hold after Federal Judge Angel Kelley issued a temporary restraining order against it while she considers a decision on three lawsuits that have been brought against the plan. Kelley has indicated she will render her opinion as quickly as she can.
The plaintiffs in those cases have alleged in court documents that the NIH Rate Change Notice was arbitrary and capricious, violated the Continuing Appropriations Act of fiscal year 2024, and was inconsistent with regulations regarding both how NIH is to calculate indirect cost rates and change those rates on existing grants.
NIH has denied those claims, arguing that the cap was a rational action and violated no laws or regulations.
The BRIMR tables not only list the total amount of the NIH awards received by each institution, they also include a breakout of the direct and indirect costs included in those awards in 2024, making it possible for interested parties to scour the data and estimate the impact the cap would have on each university.
In addition to institution-wide data and rankings, BRIMR also reports NIH awards by the major units and departments typically found in most academic health centers. Separate figures for clinical and basic science departments within schools of medicine are also provided.
Awards by those various departments and schools can be found here. Here are the top 10 health professional schools in five major categories.
Schools Of Medicine
- University of California, San Francisco $726,020,299
- Washington University St. Louis $683,318,054
- Yale University $598,157,843
- University of Pennsylvania $587,526,359
- Vanderbilt University $586,273,695
- Johns Hopkins University $571,755,774
- Stanford University $548,681,085
- University of Pittsburgh $535,038,697
- Columbia University Health Sciences $527,236,660
- University of Michigan Ann Arbor $510,493,010
Schools Of Nursing
- Columbia University Health Sciences $21,860,338
- University of Pennsylvania $18,504,569
- Emory University $18,129,007
- Florida State University $17,211,483
- University of California San Francisco $14,506,833
- Johns Hopkins University $12,194,400
- University of Illinois Chicago $10,131,728
- Arizona State University $9,413,550
- University of Washington, Seattle $8,856,192
- University of Pittsburgh $8,384,768
Schools Of Dentistry
- University of California, San Francisco $23,165,190
- University of Southern California $21,686,615
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor $19,219,683
- University of Pennsylvania $18,634,267
- New York University $16,344,130
- University of Florida $14,521,323
- State University of New York Buffalo $14,203,405
- University of Maryland, Baltimore $12,212,105
- University of California, Los Angeles $10,248,034
- University of Texas Health Sciences, Houston $9,057,748
Schools Of Pharmacy
- University of California, San Francisco $45,793,112
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill $28,113,612
- University of New Mexico Health Sciences $17,202,903
- University of Arizona $15,837,379
- University of Florida $15,507,908
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor $14,178,814
- Florida A & M University $14,059,644
- University of Utah $13,042,340
- University of Illinois Chicago $12,162,247
- Rutgers University $11,779,188
Schools Of Public Health
- Johns Hopkins University $181,526,969
- Harvard School of Public Health $146,848,069
- Columbia University Health Sciences $86,023,360
- University of North Carolina Chapel Hill $66,353,461
- Emory University $62,849,055
- University of Pittsburgh $59,776,336
- University of Washington, Seattle $49,294,479
- Brown University $47,473,878
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor $47,473,878
- George Washington University $43,000,097