Virginia Commonwealth University

Carnegie elevates VCU’s research status

The Carnegie Foundation’s Commission on Higher Education has elevated VCU’s classification status to “Very High Research Activity,” which, combined with its “Community Engaged” designation, makes VCU just one of 28 public universities in the country with academic medical centers to achieve both Carnegie Foundation distinctions.

The elevation in research status can be traced primarily to VCU’s efforts throughout the past decade to expand its research programs as it moved toward its current $255 million in sponsored research — an effort punctuated in July 2010 by a $20 million Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH to become part of a nationwide consortium of research institutions working to turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients. VCU’s community engagement status, however, has long been recognized by the foundation as the university was selected for the Community Engagement Classification in 2006.