Record funding, a growing workforce and new collaborations were among the highlights of the Dec. 12 annual State of Research address. Presented live over Zoom, Vice Chancellor for Research Thomas Flaig, MD, shared the 2023 research landscape and the many ways his office is partnering with investigators to advance scientific discovery.
Flaig pointed to the success of the AB Nexus program – a collaboration between the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and CU Boulder to spur innovative research – and called out several new funding opportunities.
One of those involves working with the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an independent entity within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Laura Buccini, DrPH, MPH, assistant vice chancellor for the Office of Research Development and Strategy, is spearheading our work with ARPA-H, which supports transformative research to drive biomedical and health breakthroughs.
“They have billions of dollars of additional funding, and Laura and her team have done extensive work to be a contact and to convey that information to us,” Flaig said. “We are at the table in multiple discussions around proposals in ARPA-H, and I hope to see a lot of fruit from that in 2024.”
Watch the State of Research address:
Noting Colorado’s recent distinction as a U.S. Tech Hub for quantum computing, Flaig said CU Anschutz scientists are also working with multiple academic institutions across the state and industry to advance quantum research.
“I think this is an opportunity for us to become a component of biomedical research within this quantum arena, which is a major part of what we are doing right now in the state,” Flaig said. The state’s tech hub designation was one of 31 awarded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
Some of the other key takeaways of the 2023 address:
- Sponsored research funding increased by 27% since 2019, totaling $705 million in 2023.
- In that five-year span, staff has grown by 25% and faculty by 16%.
- There are more than 1,500 principal investigators on campus with over 800,000 square feet of laboratory space.
- A video highlighted Adit Ginde, MD, professor and vice chair for research with the Department of Emergency Medicine, and his groundbreaking work with the military.
- The AB Nexus program distributed $3.5 million to 48 research teams over three years. A video highlighted the strengths of the program.
- CU Cancer Center members were awarded 650 grants and contracts totaling $74.8 million.
- Now under the leadership of Dean Cathy Bradley, PhD, the Colorado School of Public Health garnered $61 million in sponsored research funding.
- CU Innovations was ranked a Top 5 Innovation Hub by the NIH, filed 189 patents last year and generated $35 million in gross revenue to campus.
