UF leads state in funding from National Institutes of Health

UF researchers led the state in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health for 2017.

This fiscal year, UF earned $183,910,566 in NIH grants, wrote Joe Kays, the communications director for the Office of Research, in an email. This is a 22.45 percent increase from 2016.

David Norton, the vice president for research at UF, said this achievement illustrates UF’s competitive research.

He said this shows the prowess of researchers, their standing in the community and the quality of proposals coming from UF.

“For us,” he said, “it means we are working on relieving problems important and relevant to the state and nation.”

Getting research funding relates to the Preeminence Initiative, UF President Kent Fuch’s goal to raise UF’s national recognition and rank, Norton said.  

David Nelson, a professor of medicine and the assistant vice president for research at UF, said the institute’s grants focus on what causes diseases, impacts and treatments.

In the last few decades, he said the NIH grant process has become more competitive. About one in 10 applications actually get funded, he said.

Though he said UF is successful, he said Florida still lags behind other big states in receiving money from the NIH and hopes to see the state get more funding.

Nelson said UF’s ranking as a top-10 public university parallels the increase in NIH funding.

“Success breeds success,” he said.