Sensitivity to federal cuts
Question: How much of our research rests on federal money, and is the rest growing fast enough to absorb a cut?
49 of the 50 R1 universities with the most R&D, each sized by what it spends, against the medians of all 146 R1s. 15 of them take more than the median share of their R&D from federal sources and grew more slowly than the median since FY2019. Together they spend $20.2B a year.
- One university, sized by FY2024 R&D
- Medians of all 146 R1s: 51% federal, +40% growth
- Most exposed
View as table
| University | FY2024 R&D | Federal share | Growth since FY2019 | Most exposed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johns Hopkins University | $4.13B | 87.6% | +41.5% | No |
| University of Pennsylvania | $2.17B | 47.0% | +43.9% | No |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | $2.11B | 55.2% | +26.0% | Yes |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | $1.93B | 48.1% | +49.0% | No |
| University of California-Los Angeles | $1.90B | 51.7% | +45.2% | No |
| University of California-San Diego | $1.88B | 61.2% | +39.0% | Yes |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus | $1.69B | 67.2% | +18.6% | Yes |
| Stanford University | $1.64B | 61.7% | +36.4% | Yes |
| Cornell University | $1.61B | 49.1% | +41.0% | No |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | $1.60B | 59.4% | +38.6% | Yes |
| Ohio State University-Main Campus | $1.58B | 49.0% | +70.2% | No |
| Duke University | $1.58B | 65.8% | +28.9% | Yes |
| University of Maryland-College Park | $1.54B | 59.9% | +40.4% | No |
| Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | $1.53B | 79.4% | +59.2% | No |
| Yale University | $1.52B | 55.6% | +41.7% | No |
| University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus | $1.50B | 64.3% | +39.2% | Yes |
| New York University | $1.50B | 53.7% | +60.6% | No |
| Harvard University | $1.49B | 45.0% | +20.6% | No |
| Columbia University in the City of New York | $1.45B | 74.3% | +44.4% | No |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | $1.41B | 53.1% | +39.1% | Yes |
| Texas A&M University-College Station | $1.39B | 41.8% | +46.4% | No |
| Vanderbilt University | $1.33B | 61.0% | +70.9% | No |
| Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | $1.30B | 65.9% | +37.2% | Yes |
| University of Florida | $1.27B | 45.7% | +37.0% | No |
| University of Southern California | $1.26B | 58.5% | +39.0% | Yes |
| Northwestern University | $1.26B | 58.5% | +46.8% | No |
| Emory University | $1.25B | 59.7% | +56.8% | No |
| Washington University in St Louis | $1.24B | 66.1% | +40.1% | No |
| The University of Texas at Austin | $1.14B | 60.4% | +64.3% | No |
| University of California-Berkeley | $1.13B | 46.0% | +40.3% | No |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | $1.07B | 55.8% | +5.6% | Yes |
| University of Arizona | $1.01B | 46.6% | +37.9% | No |
| University of California-Davis | $1.01B | 50.3% | +25.1% | No |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion | $1.00B | 39.5% | +56.9% | No |
| Michigan State University | $0.93B | 50.9% | +28.4% | No |
| Purdue University-Main Campus | $0.93B | 48.5% | +40.3% | No |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | $0.91B | 56.4% | +33.8% | Yes |
| Indiana University-Bloomington | $0.90B | 50.9% | +34.2% | No |
| University of Alabama at Birmingham | $0.87B | 57.5% | +42.4% | No |
| Rutgers University-New Brunswick | $0.84B | 48.8% | +27.3% | No |
| University of Virginia-Main Campus | $0.81B | 48.5% | +32.5% | No |
| University of Utah | $0.79B | 57.4% | +31.3% | Yes |
| Boston University | $0.78B | 53.8% | +46.8% | No |
| University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus | $0.77B | 67.5% | +41.1% | No |
| University of Cincinnati-Main Campus | $0.74B | 55.6% | +39.7% | Yes |
| University of Colorado Boulder | $0.72B | 79.1% | +39.7% | Yes |
| North Carolina State University at Raleigh | $0.72B | 44.1% | +32.5% | No |
| University of Iowa | $0.70B | 48.1% | +38.4% | No |
| University of Chicago | $0.68B | 74.1% | +48.3% | No |
Public data: NSF NCSES Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, FY2019 and FY2024, final. R1: the 146 universities the Carnegie 2021 Basic Classification places in Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity, as carried in NCES IPEDS Institutional Characteristics 2025-26, provisional; all 146 have HERD data for both years. Medians are of those 146. The University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus is counted as both its HERD units in both years. Growth is not adjusted for inflation. HERD reports some universities together with their medical or health science centers. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is left out: from FY2024 HERD reports it together with its Medical Center, so its growth since FY2019 is not comparable.