UA College of Nursing Rises to 29th in Blue Ridge Rankings of National Institutes of Health Funding
May 13, 2019
The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research recently released its rankings for Colleges of Nursing funded by the NIH in 2018. The UA College of Nursing rose in the organization’s rankings to 29th in 2018, up from 49th in 2017. The BRIMR is the only organization that compiles NIH funding across colleges in the United States. The rankings are used as a measure of research productivity. The data in the 2018 Award files was obtained from the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT) from the NIH.
UA Nursing was able to dramatically increase its ranking between 2017 and 2018 due to several new NIH faculty awards, notably Dr. Terry Badger’s two large-scale grants focused on improving the health and well-being of cancer survivors and their caregivers. Combined, Principal Investigators at UA Nursing obtained $2,082,850 in NIH funding for the year.
“Our increased NIH funding was a result of a team effort. UA College of Nursing faculty, staff and appointed personnel worked hard to make this happen." ~ Judith S. Gordon, PhD, interim associate dean for research
“We anticipate continued upward movement in the rankings, which represents our national reputation for being a leader in Health Determinants Science, Precision Science, and Data and Systems Science,” said professor Judith S. Gordon, PhD, interim associate dean for research. “Our increased NIH funding was a result of a team effort. UA College of Nursing faculty, staff and appointed personnel worked hard to make this happen.”
The BRIMR rankings underestimate the amount of research being conducted by UA College of Nursing faculty, Dr. Gordon said, adding the rankings include only NIH funding to faculty members listed as principal investigators within the College. The rankings do not reflect faculty’s roles on grants funded to other colleges or universities or other types of extramural funding, such as the Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Defense, NASA or private foundations.
“The University of Arizona College of Nursing has a large, diverse portfolio of research and training grants,” Dr. Gordon said.