UW–Madison weighs in at No. 4 in research rankings

The University of Wisconsin–Madison, with more than $1.1 billion in research expenditures for fiscal year 2011, remains near the top of the class for all U.S. research universities.

Slipping one place in the rankings to number four, expenditures across all areas of scholarly endeavor at UW–Madison rose by more than $100 million for the fiscal year ending in September 2011. Ranked ahead of UW–Madison are Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Washington at Seattle.

UW-Madison has consistently ranked within the top five of all U.S. universities, public and private, for research volume for more than 20 years.

The survey of U.S. universities and colleges is conducted annually by the National Science Foundation (NSF). For fiscal 2011, research expenditures — the amount of money an institution expends in pursuit of science, engineering and other scholarly activity — were reported by 912 institutions nationwide.

“Although we fell in rank from third to fourth, the overall numbers are still headed in the right direction,” says Martin Cadwallader, vice chancellor for research and dean of the UW–Madison Graduate School. “Our ability to be successful in intense competition for a shrinking pool of resources reflects very well on the creative powers and research prowess of our outstanding faculty, staff and students. That is the key to our success.”

The new figures reported by NSF reflect expenditures in all areas of science, engineering, business, education, social science and the arts and humanities.

Funding comes primarily from competitive awards made by the federal government and funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and others. In fiscal 2011, nearly $600 million of research awards to UW–Madison came from the federal government, including $52 million in stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.