Penn stays at No. 2 in NIH funds

The Medical School ranked first in training grants and second for research grants in FY 99. Maintaining its position as one of the foremost centers of medical research in the country, the Penn School of Medicine retained its No. 2 ranking among medical schools receiving National Institutes of Health funding for Fiscal Year 1999. FY99's total of over $238 million for research, training and contract funds represents an increase of more than $35 million from the previous year, Medical School Dean and Health System Chief Executive Officer William Kelley said in a memo sent to department chairs and Medical School administrators. The announcement is welcome news for the school, coming after a year of mounting deficits and massive layoffs in the University of Pennsylvania Health System, of which the Medical School is a part. That increase helped Penn close the gap between the University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine -- the No. 1 NIH funding recipient for the second year in a row -- to only $16.9 million, Kelley said. The Medical School ranked first in training grants with $12.5 million and finished only $6.5 million behind Hopkins in research grants, something Kelley wrote that he thinks will soon change since Penn has seen its NIH awards increase 25 percent through the first five months of FY 2000. "I believe we have an excellent chance of moving into the No. 1 position in research funding at the end of the current fiscal year," Kelley said. Five Medical School departments ranked first in their respective fields in 1999, including Obstetrics, Gynecology, Radiology and Neurology. Fourteen departments were ranked in the top five. Kelley said that while the funding is important for faculty research, it is "even more important as a measure of the excellence of our faculty," because NIH funds are generated through a peer review process. The increase in NIH funding comes as the Medical School is seeing its funding from UPHS drop significantly thanks to its financial crisis. The school anticipates a $10 million to $14 million budget shortfall for FY 2001. Last week, Medical School Senior Vice Dean Richard Tannen said that if the school cannot find alternate sources of funding, it will be forced to shut down many research projects, which might mean decreases in NIH funding in the future. The rest of the top-10 NIH funding recipients were, in order: Washington University, the University of California at San Francisco, Yale University, the University of Washington, Columbia University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh.