News Release

The Johns Hopkins University performed $1.375 billion in science, medical and engineering research in fiscal year 2004, making it — by nearly 44 percent — the leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for the 26th year in a row, according to a new National Science Foundation ranking.

The university also ranked first on the NSF s separate list of federally funded research and development, spending $1.229 billion in FY2004 on research supported by such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the NSF and the Department of Defense.

Johns Hopkins in FY2002 became the first university to cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording $1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally sponsored research that year. To date, no other institution has reached the $1 billion mark.

The University of California, Los Angeles, was second in total R&D spending in FY2004 at $773 million. The University of Washington ranked second in federally financed R&D at $625.2 million.

Research funding at Johns Hopkins supports projects that delve into everything from the genetic underpinning of cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to investigation of the dark matter that comprises 90 percent of matter in the universe. The university's scientists and engineers are at work in fields as diverse as robotics, nanobiotechnology, cell engineering and global health.

Research conducted at the university s Bloomberg School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering and Applied Physics Laboratory all is supported by funding from federal and other sources.

"Discoveries and innovations that provide lasting benefit to humanity are the ultimate goals of the scientific, medical and engineering research done at Johns Hopkins," said William R. Brody, president of the university.

"But we are also gratified that our scientists' success in winning support for their research has a major economic benefit at home here in Maryland, where the university is one of the state's largest private employers," Brody said.

Johns Hopkins had led the NSF s research expenditure rankings each year since 1979, when the agency s methodology was revised to include spending by the Applied Physics Laboratory in the university s totals. Behind UCLA on the FY2004 total research expenditure list the University of Michigan at $769 million, followed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison with $763 million. The University of California, San Francisco completed the top five at $728 million.

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

To view a list of NSF publications related to academic R&D expenditures, click here: www.nsf.gov/statistics/rdexpenditures/.