UW–Madison retains 6th place in national research ranking

The National Science Foundation released its 2016 Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey data, showing that UW–Madison retained 6th place in the national research rankings.

Data on UW–Madison’s 2016 expenditures for research show the university remains a research powerhouse with nearly $1.16 billion in annual expenditures for research across all fields, about half of which comes from federal awards. Federal expenditures represent a 6.3 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, or totaling nearly $34 million in new additional spending.

“The increase in expenditures and maintaining our ranking is good news for UW–Madison, showing that the needle is moving in the right direction after a four year decline in research expenditures,” says Marsha Mailick, UW–Madison vice chancellor for research and graduate education.

The HERD survey is the primary source of information on research and development expenditures at American universities and colleges. Tabulating expenditures is one way to measure academic research activity. The survey collects information on R&D expenditures by field of research and source of funds, and also gathers information on types of research expenses and number of R&D personnel. The survey is an annual census of institutions that spent at least $150,000 on separately budgeted research and development during the fiscal year.

In Fiscal 2016, more than 900 universities responded to the survey.

Continue to full article.