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UVA School of Medicine’s cutting-edge research program has climbed to No. 36 nationally in total funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a new analysis from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research reveals.

With more than $203 million in NIH awards in fiscal year 2025 — UVA School of Medicine moved up three spots from 39th, the group’s figures suggest. 

Bolstered by its ambitious research efforts, UVA School of Medicine has been rising in the funding rankings in recent years: from 43rd in fiscal 2020, to 42nd in 2021 and 2022, to 38th in 2023, 39th in 2024, and now 36th.

“Our scientists and clinicians are doing incredible work to advance discoveries from bench to bedside and to accelerate how quickly we can get new treatments to the patients who need them,” says Colin Derdeyn, MD, interim Dean, UVA School of Medicine. “Federal research funding makes that possible, and the NIH supports the large majority of the work we do. In addition, this research funding is competitive. Our faculty write grant applications to support their work that are reviewed and ranked by the NIH. This growth in funding represents the quality of the work our investigators are doing — creative, innovative, groundbreaking and impactful.”  

The new funding figures were compiled by the Blue Ridge Institute’s Robert Roskoski Jr. and Tristram G. Parslow based on year-end composite data they obtained from the NIH’s online grants database: Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT). The Blue Ridge Institute, an independent nonprofit based in North Carolina, has compiled the research funding rankings every year since 2006, and the rankings have become a widely accepted benchmark for research program success.

Fiscal 2025 was a banner year for UVA Health’s research efforts. Major discoveries that advanced our understanding of conditions such as Alzheimer’s and ovarian cancer — even hair loss — were accompanied by the momentum of the new UVA Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology. The institute is dedicated to accelerating the development of new medicines for the world’s most devastating diseases, and in fiscal 2025 the institute marked several major milestones, including the appointment of Mark T. Esser, PhD, as its inaugural Head and Chief Scientific Officer. 

Shortly after the fiscal year closed Sept. 30, state and university leaders celebrated the placement of the final beam on the institute’s upcoming home in Fontaine Research Park. The 350,000-square-foot facility will become the nerve center for biotechnology research, development, and manufacturing at UVA, bringing together high tech research facilities and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities under one roof.

While the institute’s chief goal is to benefit patients everywhere, it is also expected to become a major economic engine for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The institute is helping cultivate an “ecosystem of innovation” — built through public-private partnership in conjunction with other Virginia research institutions — that is expected to bring hundreds if not thousands of jobs to Central Virginia. For example, UVA already has inked a partnership with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to accelerate pre-clinical innovation, and the company is building a new facility in Albemarle County.

In addition, the ecosystem is primed to create new workforce development and education pathways to supply the industry’s next generation of skilled biotechnology workers and researchers.

All that adds to the air of excitement about the groundbreaking research under way at the UVA School of Medicine and the Manning Institute.

“Advancing the care of the patients we serve through research — ranging from basic discovery of the nature of health and disease to clinical trials of new therapies — is a fundamental part of our mission at UVA Health,” Dr. Derdeyn says. “There is such great need and opportunity for this work at UVA in the coming years.”  

To keep up with the latest medical discoveries from UVA School of Medicine and the Manning Institute, bookmark the Making of Medicine blog. For more on the new research rankings and methodology, see Blue Ridge Institute.