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College of Public Health & Health Professions UNIVERSITY of FLORIDA

UF College of Public Health and Health Professions reaches new milestone in research funding with $54.8 million

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research funding infographic

By Jill Pease

The University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions has achieved a new high in research funding, receiving $54.8 million in grants and awards in fiscal year 2022-2023. The total represents a 23% increase in funding over the previous year.

“To be awarded these highly-competitive grants our faculty need to demonstrate that their research is at the cutting-edge of science,” said Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., M.P.H., dean of the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Our researchers’ success in competing for funding validates that their work has the real potential to change the lives of people, from individual patients to global communities, through disease prevention, early detection and treatment, and limiting the impact of chronic illness.”

Clinicians demonstrate intermittent hypoxia therapy.
Dr. Emily Fox, associate professor of physical therapy and director of the Brooks-PHHP Research Collaboration, leads a new study of a therapy designed to improve breathing in people with spinal cord injury.

College investigators received grants from a mix of federal, state, non-profit and industry partners. Federal funding, which increased by 33%, came from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Science Foundation.

The College of Public Health and Health Professions ranks in the top 10 for NIH funding among schools of public health at public universities, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

The new awards support studies on a broad range of important health topics such as cancer, dementia, diabetes, environmental health, HIV, infection control, spinal cord injury, stroke, substance use, and many more.

A number of factors contributed to the college’s research funding milestone. Among them:

  • An increase in larger, more complex center level grants
  • More early career faculty receiving grants and research support
  • The strength of faculty recruitment efforts, including hires under UF’s artificial intelligence initiative
  • An investment in college infrastructure, including more staff to support grants management and expenditures

“An achievement of this level reflects tremendous effort,” Virnig said. “We could not have reached this high point without the contributions of every PHHP faculty and staff member.”