The UC San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences retained its position as third among departments at public institutions and 10th among all recipients in psychiatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year 2022, according to annual figures released by the independent Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR).
Last year, NIH institutions awarded more than $33 million for projects led by 43 researchers within the department, representing a 12 percent increase over the amount received in FY2021. Over the most recent five-year period (FY2018–FY2022), UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences researchers have been awarded more than $140 million in NIH grants and contracts.
Four UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences faculty members — John L.R. Rubenstein, MD, PhD; Matthew W. State, MD, PhD; Mazen Kheirbek, PhD; and Lisa Fortuna, MD, MPH — placed in the top ten percent and a total of 13 faculty members ranked in the top quarter of all psychiatric researchers nationally.
NIH funding is one of the key mechanisms for providing financial support for basic, clinical, and translational research within the department. BRIMR’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 and receiving funds, but are not designated as a primary principal investigator. BRIMR's rankings also do not factor in funds awarded by NIH for research conducted by UCSF investigators through the Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE), a significant source of funding for many researchers who are also affiliated with the San Francisco VA Health Care System.
UCSF School of Medicine leads nation with more than $750 million in research funding
Overall, the university received over $823 million in contracts and grants awarded to researchers in its four schools—Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy—and UCSF’s Graduate Division, marking a new record for NIH funding awarded to a public university in a single year. UCSF’s Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy were top among their peers nationwide in NIH funding for biomedical research and graduate-level training, while the School of Nursing and Graduate Division both ranked among the top five in their respective peer groups. In addition, the university as a whole received the most NIH funds of any public university for the 16th year in a row, and second most among all institutions.
“The funding from NIH is critical in supporting high-quality science across the translational spectrum – from discovery to population health. It is also essential funding for our students and trainees, who contribute so much to research at UCSF,” said Catherine Lucey, MD, executive vice chancellor and provost at UCSF. “This enables the excellence of our programs in educating the next generation of scientists and clinicians.”
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About UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences 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 and Behavioral Sciences conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building; UCSF Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF Medical Centers at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion; UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; the San Francisco VA Health Care System; UCSF Fresno; and numerous community-based sites around the San Francisco Bay Area.
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—Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurology, 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
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
