UC San Diego Ranks 6th Among U.S. Universities for Research & Development Dollars

Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

The University of California, San Diego again ranked 6th among top U.S. universities in total research and development expenditures for fiscal year 2010, with $580,279,000 in federal R&D money and $943,219,000 in total R&D expenditures. The numbers were announced by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The $580,279,000 put UC San Diego in 7th place for federal R&D expenditures alone. Other R&D expenditures include funding from state and local governments, businesses, nonprofit organizations, institutional funds, and other sources, for a total of $943,219,000 million.

The numbers for 2009 were $511,428,000 in federal R&D money and $879,357,000 in total R&D expenditures.

Sandra A. Brown, vice chancellor for research, noted that UC San Diego has consistently ranked among the top 10 research universities in R&D obligations and expenditures for more than a decade.  The NSF research rankings show useful trends over time, she said, and the extramural funding is a key leading indicator of the impact of the campus’ research enterprise.

“UC San Diego continues to attract these investments in R&D through the outstanding and tireless efforts of our faculty and researchers,” Brown said. “Our campus is also among the national leaders in the life sciences, which account for more than half of all R&D at universities and colleges.”

Johns Hopkins University led the survey, followed by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Washington at Seattle, Duke University, UC San Diego, UCLA, UC San Francisco, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania. UC Berkeley and UC Davis ranked 19th and 22nd, respectively.

Since the university's founding 51 years ago, UC San Diego faculty, staff and alumni have started nearly 650 companies, including many of our local biotech and technology firms. Of the more than 150 active local companies, estimated annual sales are $15.3 billion, with 18,400 employees. The total economic impact in San Diego County of active UC San Diego-related companies is over $20 billion.