Before the federal government shut down for 43 days while President Donald Trump and members of Congress wrangled over whether a stopgap spending bill should extend Obamacare tax credits set to expire December 31, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives were on their way toward agreeing on the outlines of a budget for the NIH covering the federal fiscal year that began October 1.
Trump fired the first spending salvo in May when he submitted a proposed budget for FY 2026 that chopped NIH funding by nearly 40% (39.3%) to $29.295 billion—about $27.5 billion from the $48.301 billion set aside for the agency in FY 2025. It should not have been surprising, since during his first term in 2017, Trump proposed a budget for FY 2018 that cut the NIH share by 22%—only to see Congress ultimately approve a nine percent funding increase.
This summer, as in 2017, appropriations committees in both the House and Senate made clear that they would not go along with Trump’s dramatic spending reduction. Back in July, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $400 million, nearly one percent (0.8%) increase for NIH, to $48.701 billion, labeling Trump’s proposal as “catastrophic”—while the House Appropriations Committee in September voted for a $47.845 billion budget for the agency.
The appropriations panels’ actions staved off the proverbial budget axe Trump was prepared to swing, on top of sharp spending cuts carried out at NIH during 2025 that saw the elimination of 1,200 jobs—six percent of its total workforce—plus a 15% cap on indirect costs for research grants that took effect in February.
The cap, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in August, was essentially a cut since most institutions take 25-30% of grant funds for so-called “facilities and administrative” costs. The effects of the cap were felt far beyond the universities and research institutions that depend on NIH grants to fund their research, as the stocks of several big-name biotech tools companies slid by double digits as a result.
Below, GEN lists the top 50 institutions—universities, medical schools, research organizations, and teaching hospitals—ranked by how much NIH money they received during FY 2025, which ended September 30.
Because of the controversy over federal NIH spending policies, GEN has expanded this A-List this year to include how much the institutions received in NIH funding during FY 2024, as well as the percentage change between the two funding amounts. The number of awards does not factor into the ranking.
Of the top 50 NIH-funded institutions in FY 2025, 26 saw their total funding from the agency decline year-over-year. While most of those institutions saw single-digit decreases, three saw double-digit drops of more than 10% (University of Washington, New York University School of Medicine, and University of Alabama at Birmingham). The other 24 saw increases, of which eight enjoyed double-digit hikes.
This year, 26 states have institutions ranked among the top 50, the same number as in GEN’s previous NIH funding A-List, published in September 2024. California led the nation with seven NIH-funded institutions, followed by New York with six (one less than last year), and Massachusetts with five (one more than 2024).
The fastest growing state in NIH funding this year was Texas, which saw four of its institutions rack up a combined $835,796,481 in research dollars, compared with two institutions totaling $626,057,881 in FY 2024. Last year, University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center just missed the top 50, while UT’s Health Science Center in Houston ranked just 62nd.
After Texas, six states received NIH grants for two institutions each (Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington state), while the other 16 states have a single NIH-funded institution among the top 50 institutions listed here.
- Johns Hopkins University
FY 2025: 1,355 awards totaling $843,061,683
FY 2024: 1,512 awards totaling $857,947,550
% Change: — 1.7%
- University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
FY 2025: 1,409 awards totaling $811,379,767
FY 2024: 1,452 awards totaling $814,929,934
% Change: — 0.4%
- Washington University in St. Louis
FY 2025: 1,121 awards totaling $721,123,172
FY 2024: 1,192 awards totaling $732,416,824
% Change: — 1.5%
- University of Michigan
FY 2025: 1,238 awards totaling $716,248,479
FY 2024: 1,387 awards totaling $733,944,984
% Change: — 2.4%
- University of Pennsylvania
FY 2025: 1,206 awards totaling $710,436,938
FY 2024: 1,298 awards totaling $691,186,108
% Change: + 2.8%
- Yale University
FY 2025: 1,096 awards totaling $679,347,931
FY 2024: 1,201 awards totaling $645,860,184
% Change: + 5.2%
- University of Pittsburgh
FY 2025: 1,112 awards totaling $665,641,437
FY 2024: 1,238 awards totaling $661,207,841
% Change: + 0.7%
- Massachusetts General Hospital
FY 2025: 1,023 awards totaling $640,488,083
FY 2024: 1,055 awards totaling $655,235,087
% Change: — 2.3%
- Stanford University
FY 2025: 1,062 awards totaling $631,094,928
FY 2024: 1,154 awards totaling $613,087,148
% Change: + 2.9%
- Columbia University Health Sciences
FY 2025: 934 awards totaling $592,839,078
FY 2024: 1,068 awards totaling $639,122,474
% Change: — 7.2%
- Duke University
FY 2025: 932 awards totaling $591,811,105
FY 2024: 1,008 awards totaling $580,240,770
% Change: + 2.0%
- University of California, San Diego
FY 2025: 924 awards totaling $561,206,829
FY 2024: 1,035 awards totaling $560,905,361
% Change: + 0.1%
- University of Washington
FY 2025: 876 awards totaling $509,155,820
FY 2024: 1,016 awards totaling $572,511,103
% Change: — 11.1%
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
FY 2025: 822 awards totaling $505,435,341
FY 2024: 874 awards totaling $496,007,005
% Change: + 1.9%
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
FY 2025: 907 awards totaling $496,022,993
FY 2024: 1,053 awards totaling $531,331,717
% Change: — 6.6%
- Emory University
FY 2025: 845 awards totaling $480,046,333
FY 2024: 918 awards totaling $488,003,286
% Change: — 1.6%
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
FY 2025: 689 awards totaling $475,084,508
FY 2024: 737 awards totaling $489,895,569
% Change: — 3.0%
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center
FY 2025: 522 awards totaling $451,429,969
FY 2024: 568 awards totaling $483,917,664
% Change: — 6.7%
- New York University School of Medicine
FY 2025: 589 awards totaling $437,048,819
FY 2024: 611 awards totaling $490,227,441
% Change: — 10.8%
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital
FY 2025: 625 awards totaling $408,923,933
FY 2024: 675 awards totaling $388,162,121
% Change: + 5.3%
- Northwestern University at Chicago
FY 2025: 653 awards totaling $400,283,606
FY 2024: 721 awards totaling $419,497,487
% Change: — 4.6%
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
FY 2025: 642 awards totaling $394,053,672
FY 2024: 678 awards totaling $408,486,498
% Change: — 3.5%
- University of Minnesota
FY 2025: 687 awards totaling $367,166,792
FY 2024: 768 awards totaling $380,177,972
% Change: — 3.4%
- University of Southern California
FY 2025: 486 awards totaling $365,195,294
FY 2024: 530 awards totaling $356,438,477
% Change: + 2.5%
- University of Colorado Denver
FY 2025: 771 awards totaling $356,023,542
FY 2024: 844 awards totaling $349,635,650
% Change: + 1.8%
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
FY 2025: 268 awards totaling $354,314,992
FY 2024: 289 awards totaling $304,988,696
% Change: + 16.2%
- The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
FY 2025: 576 awards totaling $318,460,058
FY 2024: 615 awards totaling $299,934,824
% Change: + 6.2%
- Weill Medical College of Cornell University
FY 2025: 515 awards totaling $310,453,906
FY 2024: 560 awards totaling $314,704,675
% Change: — 1.4%
- Oregon Health & Science University
FY 2025: 458 awards totaling $307,413,866
FY 2024: 495 awards totaling $277,032,651
% Change: + 11.0%
- Baylor College of Medicine
FY 2025: 545 awards totaling $301,088,859
FY 2024: 628 awards totaling $326,123,057
% Change: — 7.7%
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
FY 2025: 537 awards totaling $297,422,992
FY 2024: 615 awards totaling $334,417,936
% Change: — 11.1%
- University of California at Davis
FY 2025: 504 awards totaling $297,095,438
FY 2024: 565 awards totaling $277,681,916
% Change: + 7.0%
- The Ohio State University
FY 2025: 525 awards totaling $288,841,912
FY 2024: 576 awards totaling $260,901,807
% Change: + 10.7%
- Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)
FY 2025: 413 awards totaling $288,485,494
FY 2024: 439 awards totaling $278,615,843
% Change: + 3.5%
- University of Florida
FY 2025: 546 awards totaling $277,796,798
FY 2024: 604 awards totaling $267,145,245
% Change: + 4.0%
- University of Chicago
FY 2025: 429 awards totaling $267,146,793
FY 2024: 501 awards totaling $268,513,190
% Change: — 0.5%
- University of Utah
FY 2025: 532 awards totaling $255,157,021
FY 2024: 608 awards totaling $275,111,410
% Change: — 7.3%
- Indianapolis University Indianapolis
FY 2025: 395 awards totaling $245,813,481
FY 2024: 416 awards totaling $246,388,431
% Change: — 0.2%
- Boston Children’s Hospital
FY 2025: 405 awards totaling $238,508,221
FY 2024: 429 awards totaling $229,894,668
% Change: + 3.7%
- Sloan Kettering Institute
FY 2025: 322 awards totaling $238,427,558
FY 2024: 345 awards totaling $204,712,597
% Change: + 16.5%
- University of California, Irvine
FY 2025: 431 awards totaling $232,624,931
FY 2024: 492 awards totaling $256,390,021
% Change: — 9.3%
- University of Virginia
FY 2025: 424 awards totaling $229,477,925
FY 2024: 448 awards totaling $193,343,481
% Change: + 18.7%
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
FY 2025: 358 awards totaling $216,247,564
FY 2024: 373 awards totaling $190,932,740
% Change: + 13.3%
- Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences
FY 2025: 378 awards totaling $209,347,321
FY 2024: 343 awards totaling $183,842,080
% Change: + 13.9%
- The University of Maryland, Baltimore
FY 2025: 371 awards totaling $193,909,633
FY 2024: 420 awards totaling $198,556,669
% Change: — 2.3%
- University of Massachusetts (UMass) Chan Medical School
FY 2025: 342 awards totaling $188,661,178
FY 2024: 363 awards totaling $193,362,252
% Change: — 2.4%
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
FY 2025: 272 awards totaling $186,959,542
FY 2024: 325 awards totaling $193,669,301
% Change: — 3.5%
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
FY 2025: 316 awards totaling $183,817,343
FY 2024: 336 awards totaling $163,358,703
% Change: + 12.5%
- University of Arizona
FY 2025: 292 awards totaling $183,405,230
FY 2024: 313 awards totaling $170,451,989
% Change: + 7.6%
- Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC)
FY 2025: 274 awards totaling $178,911,320
FY 2024: 285 awards totaling $191,173,327
% Change: — 6.4%
