Johns Hopkins ranks first in R&D expenditures for 33rd consecutive year

The Johns Hopkins University performed $2.1 billion in medical, science, and engineering research in fiscal 2011, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total research and development spending for the 33rd year in a row, according to a new National Science Foundation ranking.

The university also once again ranked first on the NSF's separate list for federally funded research and development, spending $1.88 billion in FY2011 on research supported by NSF, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense. In FY2002, Johns Hopkins became the first university to reach the $1 billion mark on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research that year.

The University of Michigan ranked second in R&D spending in FY2011 at $1.27 billion, as well as third in federally financed R&D at $820 million.

At Johns Hopkins, research and development money supports investigations into everything from the origins of the universe to reducing maternal and child deaths worldwide to strategies for improving science, technology, engineering, and math education for public elementary and middle school students in urban settings.

Johns Hopkins research is also supported by funding from private sources and from return on investment from past discoveries. In fiscal 2011, Johns Hopkins earned $16.6 million from more than 963 licenses and their associated patents.

"Johns Hopkins is proud of its record in research, teaching, and service," said Jonathan Bagger, interim provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Johns Hopkins. "Our investigators create knowledge, making discoveries, saving lives, and transforming the world in which we live."

Johns Hopkins has led the NSF's research expenditure ranking each year since 1979, when the agency's methodology changed to include spending by the Applied Physics Laboratory in the university's totals. Behind the University of Michigan on the FY2011 total research expenditure list is the University of Washington, Seattle, at $1.14 billion, followed by the University of Wisconsin, Madison, at $1.1 billion. Completing the top five is Duke University, at $1.02 billion.

The total funding ranking includes research support not only from federal agencies, but also from foundations, corporations, and other sources.