Press Release

October 17, 2006
Contact: Melissa Campbell
(973) 972-4564
campbeme1@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ Receives More Than $120 Million in NIH Funding
for 250-plus Research Projects Sponsored in 2005

NEWARK — The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey received a total of $120,750,579 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2005 according to report recently released by the NIH.

UMDNJ ranks 55 among all 3,419 institutions receiving the funding. Six of the university’s eight schools receive NIH funding: New Jersey Medical School and New Jersey Dental School, based in Newark; Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the School of Public Health, based in Piscataway; the School of Osteopathic Medicine, based in Stratford; and the School of Nursing, based in Newark and Stratford.

“NIH grant awards are primarily determined by study sections composed of top senior scientists from research institutions across the country who are asked to review grant applications by individual investigators,” said Kathleen W. Scotto, PhD, Interim Vice President for Research at UMDNJ. “The University’s NIH rankings show that our faculty is successfully competing for these prestigious awards.”

UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School received $55,911,247, an increase of approximately 20 percent over 2004’s amount of $46,407,721, moving the school’s rank from 67 to 64, placing NJMS just ahead of SUNY-Stony Brook in Long Island (65) and in close proximity to University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston (62), Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC (60), and Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans (59). A total of 104 research and training projects at New Jersey Medical School were funded by the NIH.

William Gause, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Research at New Jersey Medical School, attributed the increase in NIH rankings partly to the successful recruiting of top scientists to the school in the past two years.

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (66) received $54,475,050 in 2005, with 138 projects funded. Both UMDNJ allopathic medical schools surpass several regional allopathic medical schools including Penn State (70), Brown (71), and Tufts (72).

With $2,656,791 in NIH grants for nine projects in 2005, the School of Osteopathic Medicine ranked second among the nation’s 23 colleges of osteopathic medicine. This marks the 21st consecutive year that the UMDNJ school was ranked among the top three osteopathic medical schools for NIH funding.

Other NIH awards to UMDNJ for 2005 include:

· $423,472 to the School of Nursing for one project.
· $4,114,578 to the School of Public Health for 11 projects
· $3,169,441 to New Jersey Dental School for 11 projects, an increase of $886,521 from the previous year.

In 2006, NIH awards to UMDNJ to date total $128,127,463, an increase of $10,731,282, or 9.14 percent, from 2005.

For more information on NIH Award Data, click here: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/award/awardtr.htm#c

UMDNJ is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.