UA College of Nursing Rises in Blue Ridge Rankings of National Institutes of Health Funding

March 17, 2021

The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research recently released its rankings for Colleges of Nursing funded by the NIH in 2020. The UA College of Nursing rose in the organization’s rankings to 33 in 2020, up from 39 in 2019.  UArizona Nursing accounted for $1,933,505 out of $139,881,044 that UArizona Health Sciences received. 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.

UA Nursing was able to increase its ranking between 2019 and 2020 due to several new NIH faculty awards, notably Dr. Aleeca Bell’s large-scale grant funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research to study an intervention aimed at improving mother-infant bonding, health, and well-being. Learn more about this study here.


“We are very proud that the efforts of our hard-working faculty are reflected in the Blue Ridge rankings. Our faculty have been extremely productive, and their innovative research will lead to advances in science and improved health and healthcare." ~ Judith S. Gordon, PhD, Associate Dean for Research


Judith S. Gordon, PhD, Associate Dean for Research

“We are very proud that the efforts of our hard-working faculty are reflected in the Blue Ridge rankings,” said Judith S. Gordon, PhD, Associate Dean for Research in the UA College of Nursing. “Our faculty have been extremely productive, and their innovative research will lead to advances in science and improved health and healthcare.”

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 Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research is a nonprofit organization that ranks U.S. medical schools by NIH grant awards each year. The NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. NIH-funded research has led to breakthroughs and new treatments helping people live longer, healthier lives, and building the research foundation that drives discovery.

The Blue Ridge Rankings track yearly NIH funding awards from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. The rankings are determined by the whole value of awards to a principal investigator’s institution and do not include research and development contracts.