The Johns Hopkins University performed $1.24 billion
in scientific, medical and engineering research in fiscal
year 2003, making it — for the 25th year in a row
— the country's leading academic institution in such
expenditures, according to a new National Science
Foundation ranking.
The university was also first on NSF's list of
federally funded research expenditures, spending $1.107
billion in FY2003 on research funded by agencies such as
the National Institutes of Health, NASA, NSF and the
Department of Defense.
Johns Hopkins remains the only university ever to
cross the $1 billion threshold on either list. It became
the first to do so in FY2002, when it recorded $1.140
billion in total research and $1.023 billion in federally
sponsored research.
Research funding at Johns Hopkins supports projects
exploring everything from the genetic underpinnings of
disease to robotics to the early history of the universe.
Among the many advances reported by Johns Hopkins
scientists in FY2003 were the use of stem cells to improve
movement in paralyzed rats, the discovery of a massive
gaseous cloud in the same orbit around Jupiter as the moon
Europa and the creation of a form of pure copper metal six
times stronger than normal.
Federal and other funding sources support research at
the School of Medicine, Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of
Engineering, School of Nursing and Applied Physics
Laboratory.
"Discoveries that expand knowledge, improve our world
and help people are
the primary focus of the medical, scientific and
engineering research we do at
Johns Hopkins," said William R. Brody, president of the
university. "But there's a side effect of this research
spending that should never be forgotten: We bring outside
money into Maryland and spend much of it here, and that's a
key to the strength of the state's economy."
The university, when taken in combination with its
sister institution the Johns Hopkins Health System, is the
state's largest employer, and many of its jobs are directly
or indirectly related to research. The university's
economic impact also includes purchases from local vendors
and the use of its discoveries to promote private
enterprise through the licensing of technology to new and
existing businesses. In fiscal 2003, Johns Hopkins
researchers applied for 541 patents and were granted 95.
During that year, the university also concluded 159
licensing or option agreements with businesses.
Johns Hopkins has led the NSF's research expenditure
rankings each year since 1979, when the agency's
methodology was revised to include research spending by the
Applied Physics Laboratory in the university's totals. In
FY2003, the Howard County-based APL reported $607 million
in total R&D expenditures, of which $582 million was
federally funded.
On the FY2003 total research expenditure list,
released in July, Johns Hopkins is followed by University
of California, Los Angeles, which spent $849 million in
research and development in FY2003. The University of
Michigan (all campuses) ranked third, with $780 million in
expenditures, followed by the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, with $721 million. The University of Washington
completed the top five with $685 million in research and
development.
The total funding ranking includes not only research
support from federal agencies but also support from
foundations, corporations and other sources.