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Federal Research Funds and Universities

A new Rand report
relates that Univeristies, and their medical schools in particular, have been doing quite well in recent years in raising research funds:

" ... between FY 1996 and FY 2002, total federal R&D funds going to universities and colleges grew from $12.8 billion to $21.4 billion, for an overall increase of 45.7 percent in constant 1996 dollars. The level of increase in federal R&D funds going to universities and colleges between FY 1996 and FY 2002 was more than double the overall increase in total federal R&D funds during the same period in constant 1996 dollars (i.e., 45.7 percent versus 20.9 percent).

Much of this growth was attributable to sizable increases in R&D funding at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), most especially the National Institutes of Health. The main recipients of HHS’s funds were nonfederal entities, primarily universities and colleges. By far the most striking finding of this analysis was the discovery that, in FY 2002, 45 percent of all federal R&D funds provided to universities and colleges by HHS and all other federal agencies went directly to medical schools."