UCSF Psychiatry among top 10 nationally in NIH research funding

By Nicholas Roznovsky
 

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The UC San Francisco Department of Psychiatry was ranked fourth among departments at public institutions and eighth among all recipients in psychiatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year 2017, according to annual figures released by the independent Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRI).

Last year, NIH awarded more than $29.4 million for projects led by 36 researchers within the department, representing a 29 percent increase over the $22.7 million received in FY2016. Five UCSF Psychiatry faculty members placed in the top ten percent and nine in the top quarter of all psychiatric researchers nationally. Over the most recent five-year period (FY2013-FY2017), UCSF Psychiatry researchers have been awarded nearly $125 million in NIH grants and contracts.

NIH funding is one of the key mechanisms for providing financial support for basic, clinical, and translational research within the department. BRI’s figures, however, do not include research awards from other government agencies and non-government institutions, or NIH-awarded projects where department members are contributing to research efforts but are not designated as a primary principal investigator. BRI's rankings also do not factor in the $3.9 million in funds awarded last year by NIH for research conducted by UCSF Psychiatry faculty members through the Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE).

UCSF schools lead their fields again in research funding

Overall, UCSF received $593.9 million in contracts and grants awarded to researchers in its four schools — of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy — and UCSF’s Graduate Division. UCSF’s Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy ranked first among their peers nationwide in NIH funding for their biomedical research and graduate-level training, while the Schools of Dentistry and Nursing ranked second in their fields. In addition, the university as a whole received the most NIH funds of any public university for the seventh year in a row, and second most overall.

“The university’s ongoing national leadership in NIH funding illustrates the incredible caliber of our research community,” said Lindsey Criswell, MD, MPH, DSc, UCSF’s vice chancellor for research. “This success in obtaining public research funding reflects our shared passion for UCSF’s mission as a public institution to uncover the fundamental mechanisms underlying human biology and disease while working to transform health worldwide.”

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About UCSF Psychiatry

The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care and public service.

UCSF Psychiatry conducts its clinical, educational and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including UCSF campuses at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay and Laurel Heights, UCSF Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, the San Francisco VA Health Care System and UCSF Fresno.

About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences

The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.

The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.

About UCSF

UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises top-ranked hospitals – UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland – and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.