Amidst declining federal grants and other threats to research funding, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has continued to top the charts in its research expenditures.
UW-Madison rose to third place nationally in 2012 research and development spending, according to a report released by the National Science Foundation. This pushed UW-Madison in front of the University of Washington-Seattle, the institution that formerly held the third-place seat in research expenditures.
With $1.17 billion in 2012 expenditures, UW-Madison fell just below John Hopkins University’s $2 billion and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor’s $1.18 billion.
UW-Madison’s spending was a 5.2 percent increase from 2011, when it spent $1.1 billion on research. Nationwide, research and development expenditures remained relatively stagnant, with a 1.1 percent overall decrease.
Research and development funding increased from non-governmental sources such as institutions and nonprofits. But the majority of research money comes from the federal government, which overall granted 1.5 percent less funding in 2012 from 2011.
