Eric Wang
The Yale School of Medicine received more than $450 million in grants from the National Institute of Health, or NIH, in 2019, ranking in the top ten of the list of most funded medical schools for the 19th year since 2001.
The school received $451,476,354 and ranks sixth in the nation in research dollars granted by the NIH. These results were calculated by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, and the Yale School of Medicine publicly announced them in a short article on their website last week.
“[The funding] covers … basic science research on very fundamental mechanisms … all the way up through clinical trials in patients … and even beyond that, all the way up to population health research.” said Brian Smith, deputy dean for scientific affairs at the medical school. “It really covers the whole gamut, and it covers across all the different departments in the medical school.”
According to Cynthia Walker, the school’s deputy dean for finance and administration, the 906 individual grants given went to 617 researchers at the school. Walker also stated that 22 percent of submitted proposals resulted in funding.
“[The] NIH is by far the largest component of the funding,” Smith said, although the medical school does receive money from other organizations, such as the National Science Foundation.
“The growth in Yale School of Medicine NIH funding reflects on the creativity and hard work of our faculty and staff,” wrote Dean of the School of Medicine Nancy Brown in an email to the News. “This success is also reflected in where the School of Medicine ranks relative to other institutions with regards to funding.”
In its calculations, the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranked the School of Medicine among other medical schools in the country based on the funding received for each individual department. For instance, Yale came in first for the amount of funding received by their psychiatry and dermatology departments.
“[These rankings are] one of the indices that gives you an idea of how well a department is comparing to the other top … research universities and research medical schools, but it’s not the whole story,” Smith said.
While the school’s faculty conduct many focused research projects, the institution as a whole aims to be broad in its investigations. According to Smith, the school focuses most on ensuring it produces high-quality research that has an impact, rather than the number of grants.
“[The funding] really does translate ultimately into better healthcare for certainly the United States population, but [also] for individuals in populations around the world,” Smith said. He also noted that while this funding is from a national institution, the school aims to have a global focus in its research.
The Yale School of Medicine is the sixth-oldest medical school in the United States.
Charlotte Zimmer | charlotte.zimmer@yale.edu