UTHealth Houston ranks among nation’s best in NIH funding
UTHealth Houston again ranks among the nation’s leading institutions for National Institutes of Health research funding, according to the latest annual analysis by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (external link).
The rankings measure NIH funding awarded during the previous federal fiscal year and assess performance across institutions, academic departments, and individual investigators
For the second consecutive year, McGovern Medical School increased its NIH funding, remaining in the top 35% of U.S. medical schools. With a total of $124 million in NIH funding in 2025, the school ranked No. 51 among all U.S. medical schools.
Four of the school’s medical departments placed in the top 20 of 2025 NIH funding, with the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery coming it at No. 7; Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at No. 13; Neurology at No. 17; and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at No. 20.
In total, 13 departments ranked among the top-50 in the U.S. in their respective categories. The national ranking matched the medical school’s ranking from 2024 and ties for the highest place since 2002, when it was ranked No. 50 in NIH funding.
“These results really highlight how our faculty is not only making meaningful contributions across the full research spectrum, from the bench to the bedside, but also advancing our own mission of conducting innovative research and providing the best in patient care,” said LaTanya J. Love, MD, dean of McGovern Medical School and H. Wayne Hightower Distinguished Professor in the Medical Sciences.
NIH rankings across UTHealth Houston
Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston continued its ascent in the rankings of nursing schools that receive funding from the NIH, earning the No. 8 spot nationally with almost $12 million in 2025. The school maintained its No. 1 ranking among Texas nursing schools for the third year in a row, and funding increased from $6,438,187 in 2024 to $11,959,508 in 2025.
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health ranked No. 1 in Texas, No. 7 among publicly funded graduate schools of public health, and 15th in NIH funding nationally. With nearly $31 million in NIH funding in 2025, the school’s unique positioning support population health research throughout Texas.
UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry maintained its position among the nation’s leading dental schools in research funding, ranking No. 2 in Texas and No. 18 nationally. According to the Blue Ridge Institute’s annual rankings, the school reported more than $5.2 million in NIH research grants funded through September 2025.
“These new rankings illustrate the strength and breadth of our outstanding research performance and the stellar faculty we have in all our schools,” said John Hancock, MB BChir, PhD, ScD, senior vice president in Research and Strategy Innovation at UTHealth Houston, senior executive director of The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, and the John S. Dunn Distinguished University Chair in Physiology and Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.