Research Statistics
Annual Report on Research & Technology Commercialization
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) tracks key research metrics for the University, including national rankings, proposals and awards, sponsored expenditures, and technology commercialization performance measures. Each year, OVPR presents an annual report on University of Minnesota Research and Technology Commercialization.
- See our printable FY2018 Annual Report on Research and Technology Commercialization for story highlights among our research projects, and current statistics on research awards, expenditures, and tech transfer (also below on this website).
- See the press release on the FY2018 Annual Report: External funding for University of Minnesota research reaches record level.
- Faculty and staff seeking detailed data, including college level statistics from previous years, can access the OVPR Research Reporting Center.
National Rankings
The U of M consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 public research universities according to several well-regarded research university assessments, including the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey (HERD), the Center for Measuring University Performance (CMUP), and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Dollar amounts represented in thousands - Source: National Science Foundation’s HERD Survey
Expenditures
The HERD survey is the primary source of comparative information on research expenditures at US colleges and universities.
The University’s Twin Cities campus posted $922 million in research expenditures in FY2017, the latest available figures. (The HERD survey requires the University to report Twin Cities alone.) When all U of M campuses’ expenditures were combined, the total was $948 million.
Proposals & Awards
University of Minnesota faculty and staff competed successfully for a record $793 million in externally sponsored research awards in FY2018, up 6.5 percent from FY2017 and the highest amount received any year to date when one-time federal economic stimulus dollars are excluded. Increases in federal (up 12.7 percent) and state (up 17.7 percent) awards drove the higher overall funding level.
Federal awards accounted for 62 percent of overall awards, and the University’s two largest sources of federal funding, the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, rose by $22 million (8.8 percent) and $9 million (12.5 percent) over the previous year, respectively. Agencies in the Federal: Other category include agriculture ($32.1M), defense ($26.2M), energy ($21.9M), and education ($14.5M).
Overall, 51 percent of all fiscal 2018 research awards were to the Medical School or other health sciences, underscoring the University’s broad strength across many biomedical and health disciplines. The Health Sciences pie slice represents the School of Public Health ($63.9M), four other colleges, and shared centers within the Academic Health Center (AHC).
Awards by Source, FY2009-2018
Dollar amounts represented in millions. Chart excludes funds from ARRA, the 2009 federal fiscal stimulus bill.
Technology Commercialization
University-developed technologies reach the market through University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization, which facilitates the transfer of University research to licensee companies for the development of new products and services that benefit the public good, foster economic growth, and generate revenue to support the University’s mission.
In FY 2018, U of M Technology Commercialization signed a record 230 new licensing deals and 86 new Minnesota Innovation Partnership (MN-IP) agreements. They also spun off 13 startup companies, with 27 others still in the University’s startup pipeline. See the Annual Report on Technology Commercialization for more highlights on how the University supports the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Dollar amounts represented in millions. Technology Commercialization, InfoEd System; UMN Enterprise Financial System. *FY2015 data includes 94 licenses for the FAST technology, spun out that year as FastBridge Learning.
A 2017 Milken Institute study ranked the U of M 4th among US tech transfer offices in executing license deals and 6th among US public tech transfer offices overall. The U of M holds more than 900 issued patents and 1,800 current licenses.