UW-Madison steps up to No. 2 in research rankings

Madison, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-Madison has claimed the number two spot in university research and now conducts $905 million worth of research annually, according to new statistics released by the National Science Foundation.

With science and engineering research expenditures totaling $832 million included in the overall total for fiscal 2006, UW-Madison has climbed one spot, surpassing the combined campuses of the University of Michigan, which held the number two spot in fiscal 2005. The overall figure of $905 million amounts to an average of $440,000 per UW-Madison faculty member.

In addition, the report identifies UW-Madison as the leading American university in terms of research outside of science and engineering, with $73 million spent on research in the areas of education, business, and the humanities. In that measure, Wisconsin outpaced Harvard, Purdue, and the University of Texas to claim the top spot on the NSF list.

Johns Hopkins, with science and engineering research expenditures of $1.5 billion, remains at the top of the overall list. The Johns Hopkins total includes $709 million for work at the Applied Physics Laboratory, an affiliate that focuses on defense and military research.

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