VCU moves into top 100 in NSF rankings

Continuing its climb up the National Science Foundation rankings board in 2012, Virginia Commonwealth University made it as a top 100 institution in both the federal and total spending categories for research and development.

Expenditures from federal grants and contracts for research and development for fiscal year 2010 increased 48 percent from 2009, boosting VCU into the No. 79 position, up from No. 102. And while total expenditures during that time increased at a slightly lower clip, the 31 percent increase in spending propelled VCU’s ranking in that category to No. 98.

According to Francis Macrina, Ph.D., VCU’s vice president for research, the increased expenditures were due in part to federal stimulus funds, as well as the $20 million National Institutes of Health grant awarded to VCU to become part of a nationwide consortium of 60 research institutions focused on turning laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients.

“VCU’s research grant support base has been growing steadily for several years now,” Macrina said. “We were pleased with the success of our faculty in competing for research grants in that reporting period and expected that we’d see VCU climb in the NSF rankings. But we were pleasantly surprised by the magnitude of climb, especially in the federal expenditure category. This accomplishment is directly connected to the outstanding scholarly work of our faculty, who have created a research enterprise that is the pride of VCU.”