15 Dec UW–Madison increases research expenditures by $16 million, retains top 10 research institution ranking

By Natasha Kassulke, UW–Madison

The National Science Foundation has released its 2021 fiscal year Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) data, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison has again ranked eighth in the national research rankings for public and private universities. UW–Madison ranked eighth in the last survey covering the 2020 fiscal year. The rankings are the first to include a full fiscal year reflecting pandemic impacts.

Between July 2020 and the end of June 2021, the university increased its annual research expenditures over the previous year, reporting more than $1.38 billion in annual expenditures across all fields, about half of which comes from federal awards. It represents an increase of $16.1 million over fiscal year 2020.

“Today’s announcement is a testament to the hard work and innovation of our UW–Madison research community,” says UW–Madison Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin. “I am pleased we sustained and even slightly improved our research productivity during a period severely impacted by COVID-19, and I look forward to supporting, exploring and expanding research opportunities across all our divisions, to make our impressive research enterprise even stronger.”

The HERD survey is an annual census of institutions that spend at least $150,000 on separately budgeted research and development in a fiscal year and is the primary source of such expenditure data at American universities and colleges. It is one way to measure academic research activity. Read more …