The University of Vermont faculty and staff researchers attracted over a quarter-billion dollars in research funding in the fiscal year ending June 30, reaching a new all-time high.

In recent years, the university has enhanced its emphasis on research activities that “build healthy societies and a healthy environment,” UVM officials said today. Significant attention has gone into building campus infrastructure to support researchers’ work.

UVM attracted $250.1 million for research last fiscal year, an 8.3% increase from the $231 million total of the previous fiscal year, marking a third consecutive year of robust research growth. For the first time, UVM ranks among the top 100 public research universities in the country, according to the most recent National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey.

A large component of last year’s growth is the increasing number of competitive awards UVM faculty proposed and won. Faculty garnered more than 40 awards of $1 million or more compared to 27 in the previous year. 

The Larner College of Medicine netted $108 million of research awards. Recent grants directly support the Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health, the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, and the UVM Center for Biomedical Shared Resources.

In total, the Larner College of Medicine earned 400 research awards in fiscal year 2022, 52% of UVM’s 798 total awards. This represents an 8% increase from the year before. But research activities are increasingly spread across multiple colleges and schools, including the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, the College of Education and Social Services, and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, together, accounting for about half of all funding.

An important aspect of economic development is UVM’s increased focus on corporate partnerships and technology commercialization. UVM Innovations’ gross revenue from technology transfer opportunities and UVM startups topped $1 million for the first time thanks to the spin-off of UVM startup Packetized Energy, acquired by EnergyHub in March. 

UVM’s growing list of corporate partners includes Mass Mutual, Agilent Technologies, Seventh Generation, and Global Foundries. UVM recently dedicated the Agilent Laboratory for Chemical Analysis, a hub for advanced instrumentation that will be a valuable technology resource for local and regional businesses. The lab was made possible by the partnership with Agilent.