IU researchers secured $772 million in sponsored awards in 2023

Today I am pleased to officially announce that researchers across IU received $772 million in sponsored awards in 2023—more than any other university in the state.

This $42 million increase over 2022 is a true testament to the expertise and creative innovation of our world-class faculty. These awards directly advance the ambitious goals of the IU 2030 strategic plan, expanding and building on our strengths in human-centered disciplines, health sciences, and STEM, and enriching our communities through arts, humanities, and culture. 

In Indianapolis, where the university saw a 32% jump in research awards, IU biology professors Bonnie Blazer-Yost and Teri Belecky-Adams in the School of Science will use a $7.8 million Department of Defense grant to discover a drug treatment for hydrocephalus, a condition commonly associated with complications from traumatic brain injury. 

Supported by a $7 million, five-year National Institutes of Health grant, Dr. Ken Mackie—Jack and Linda Gill Chair of IU’s renowned Gill Center for Biomolecular Science and professor of psychological and brain sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington—will serve as a principal investigator for a new IU research center that expands upon IU’s extensive expertise in addiction research, uncovering new therapies for substance-use disorder.

Debra Burns, chair of the Department of Music and Arts Technology—which is now part of the Herron School of Art and Design—will use a $2.4 million grant from the NIH and National Endowment for the Arts to further her leading research into how music can be used to treat chronic pain. This is in addition to funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities that is supporting Music Unwound, a national consortium that includes the Jacobs School of Music. 

Finally, the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, a statewide partnership housed at the IU School of Medicine, received yet another NIH grant renewal, providing $38 million in funding aimed at improving health in our state.

All of this faculty-led work comes as IU further aligns its comprehensive research efforts to state and national economic development and health initiatives. This includes a recent historic $250 million investment in biosciences that will launch two pioneering multidisciplinary research institutes in Indianapolis while bolstering long-standing initiatives at IU Bloomington; a $111 million investment in microelectronics and nanotechnology; and several new investments in creative initiatives that extend IU’s globally recognized leadership in revitalizing communities through the arts and humanities. 

Across IU, we’re advancing our impact and delivering solutions to pressing challenges, while strengthening our standing among the nation’s greatest and most influential public research universities.

Pamela Whitten

President
Indiana University