Leadership message: Strategic funding initiatives lead to record-breaking research success

I’d like to share how the School of Medicine has strategically developed funding initiatives to amplify both our scientific output and our success in securing external funding. Over the past few years, the School of Medicine has invested in research projects that demonstrate the prospect of innovative outcomes and major funding, with an emphasis on collaborative efforts. These investments are paying off — transforming early-stage ideas into high-impact projects and generating millions in extramural support that strengthen our research enterprise and expand our reach.

Our recent national recognition underscores the importance of this strategy. The School of Medicine is among the nation’s leading medical schools in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding, placing 31^st in the latest Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research rankings. This is two spots higher than last year, with a record total of $233 million in NIH grants. Twelve of our departments are ranked in the top 20, reflecting the breadth of excellence of our research community.

This year also includes funding for a record number (32) of NIH K awards made to early career researchers. This validates our investments in programs designed to grow new principal investigators and helps to secure our future success.

Collaboration leads to groundbreaking discoveries and increased funding

One of the longest running initiatives is the Cultivating Team Science (CTS) Award program, which started in 2021 and is now in its sixth round of funding. This award is designed to support large-scale, collaborative research efforts within the School of Medicine. It is a two-year grant of $200,000 per team, with two projects funded per year. During the two-year period, investigators form multi-department groups to plan, prepare and submit major team-based grant applications to federal agencies such as the NIH. These awards have supported groundbreaking work in areas ranging from opioid use disorder treatment and neurodevelopmental health to innovative brain-computer interfaces and regenerative medicine.

In its five-year run to date, this initiative has already seen remarkable returns. For example, the $2 million awarded by the School of Medicine has already catalyzed more than $32 million in extramural funding from the NIH and other agencies. Furthermore, this number represents funding generated only by teams from the first three cohorts of awardees (the 2021-2023 cycles) who have submitted grant applications, so far.

In addition to the funding secured thus far, more than 50 publications have been generated by the CTS awardees. Follow this link to see the awarded projects from the first five years of this program.

This trajectory underscores the power of collaboration and the importance of investing in innovative ideas. As we move forward, we will continue to leverage these successes to position UC Davis as a leader in translational research and team science nationally.

Sincerely,

Kim E. Barrett, Ph.D.
Vice Dean for Research, UC Davis School of Medicine