DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University received $384.6 million last year from the National Institutes of Health to advance medical research, ranking 9th in the country among universities, research institutions and teaching hospitals that are awarded the taxpayer-based research dollars.

Duke was the largest recipient of NIH grant funding in North Carolina for fiscal-year 2018, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, which publishes an annual analysis of NIH funding. 

Eight clinical departments in the Duke University School of Medicine ranked among the top 10 for NIH research dollars:

Surgery: 1st, receiving $30.2 million in grant awards
Pediatrics: 2nd, receiving $39.5 million
Neurosurgery: 3rd, receiving $8.1 million
Medicine: 5th, receiving $133.9 million
Psychiatry: 5th, receiving $39.6 million 
Orthopedics: 6th, receiving $5.2 million
Anesthesia: 7th, receiving $5.8 million 
Ophthalmology: 8th, receiving $9 million

Additionally, three basic science disciplines were also included among the top 10 for funding, including biostatistics at No. 2, with $18.3 million in grant funding; genetics at No. 9 with $19.8 million; and pharmacology at No. 6 with $15.7 million.

“Our faculty, staff and students work incredibly hard and have been very successful in bringing in research funding that allows them to search for answers to important questions about biological processes and health,” said Mary E. Klotman, M.D., dean of Duke University School of Medicine. “At Duke, we are proud of our contributions in biomedical research and ultimately how those discoveries advance care for all patients.”

The NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, investing more than $32 billion a year to advance research aimed at improving health.