Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were awarded $575.8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in federal fiscal year 2021, according to the School of Medicine’s 2021 State of the School Report, an increase of nearly $88 million over FFY2020. This is an all-time high for the school and the sixth consecutive year of growth in NIH grant awards.
Research grants to the School of Medicine from all sources — including foundations, donors and government agencies such as the Department of Defense and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — totaled nearly $750 million in our FY2021. Together with increased institutional support, the total annual investment in research has reached well over $1 billion.
“These impressive numbers are a reflection of the remarkable depth and breadth of our faculty here at the School of Medicine,” said David H. Perlmutter, MD, the George and Carol Bauer Endowed Dean of the School of Medicine, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor. “Our goal is not to get grants per se. Our goal is advancing science. Our goal is curing diseases through our discovery capabilities, and these discoveries lead to new therapies and innovations in patient care.”
Since 2016, NIH funding has grown by more than $200 million, an increase of 54% that corresponds to a compound annual growth rate of over 9%. “It is so extraordinary to see that with these numbers we have surpassed other exceptional medical research institutions such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania, and we have even closed what once seemed a formidable gap between us and the perennial No. 1 in NIH funding, the University of California at San Francisco.