VCU ranked in top 50 public research universities, receives $405.6 million in grants

VCU Health building. Photo by Kaitlyn Fulmore

Anna Chen, Copy Editor

“VCU research is unstoppable,” stated A.J. Hostetler, director of communications for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. 

The National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research nationally ranked VCU as No. 50 for fiscal research expenditures in December 2022, after VCU received $405.6 million in research grants, breaking the university’s institutional record.

The university was ranked No. 58 in 2021. 

Various schools and colleges within VCU received multiple grants to aid in research, missions, clinical trials and other related purposes.  

This comes after the university received a total of $405.6 million for sponsored research funding for the fiscal year 2022. It is a 10% increase since the previous year and a 49% overall increase from five years ago, according to a VCU News article

“It underscores that VCU is truly a public research institution, focusing on research that leads to new discoveries and addressing issues of inequities and disparities, while tackling our society’s greatest challenges,” Hostetler stated. 

All of the numerous areas of the university’s research seek to better the human experience as well as other global initiatives that seek to better humankind, according to Hostetler.

“Our researchers are among the best at breaking down barriers leading to knowledge creation, transformative innovation and bringing opportunities for the region and our community, including our students and the patients we serve,” Hostetler stated. 

Of the $405 million, Stand Up To Cancer gave a $3 million grant to the VCU Massey Cancer Center for their research in health equity and the fight for racial inequality in lung cancer. 

Srirama Rao, vice president for research and innovation, said the university expands and the ranking improves every year due to the collective effort of the teams, Rao said.

“If you were to truly ask me, I would say numbers don’t mean squat, it is more of the trends that we see here and every year we see it has been growing,” Rao said. “I think it’s truly a reflection of the amazing work that our people are doing.”

Dr. Robert Winn, director of the Massey Cancer Center, said he’s excited about the $400 million that VCU were able to bring in. 

“It’s a recognition, not of how much we’ve been given, but how much we’ve actually earned with our research efforts through our individual investigators through things that Massey has been doing through team science,” Winn said. 

Winn said the money also allows the university to be in highly rated programs nationwide.

“It finally puts us in a place where we are competitive with other elite academic institutions,” Winn said. 

Lung cancer is among one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and Black men are typically No. 1 in that category, according to Winn.

“The question is, how do we get to African American men and screen them earlier?” Winn said. 

Researchers on the team have developed a multi-modal navigation strategy that works to screen patients for lung cancer and provide them with education and support related to lung cancer. The team will use these samples to research the developments of new biomarkers for lung cancer, particularly in Black men, according to Winn. 

“We believe that if we have some clues around reducing death rates for African Americans, we can also reduce rates for everybody else,” Winn said. 

Looking ahead, Winn said the next steps for the cancer center would be turning their program into a Specialized Program of Research Excellence, which consists of various research programs targeting cancer prevention and more through clinical settings, by 2024. 

In addition to this, the center also wants to add four more additional cancer team science grants. 

“I think there’s a lot to be proud of here at VCU at this very moment in history,” Winn said.

Editor’s Note: On Jan. 18, this article was published stating “Various departments within VCU Health received the grant to aid in research, missions, clinical trials and other purposes. ” This Information is inaccurate, as VCU as a whole received the $405.6 million in grant.

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