The University of Iowa secured a record-breaking $867 million in external funding for fiscal year 2022, which ended June 30. This outpaces the previous record of $818 million and represents a 6% increase over fiscal year 2021.

“These funds allow the University of Iowa to continue to provide transformative educational experiences for students, advance discoveries through research, and improve the lives of Iowans through education, health care, creative productions, and economic vitality,” says Marty Scholtz, vice president for research. “We are proud of the hard work of the faculty, staff, and students who secured this funding in order to advance the university’s threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service.”

Gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations to the UI totaled $169 million in FY2022.

“We are deeply grateful to those who have made donations to support the research endeavors of our faculty, students and staff,” says UI Center for Advancement President and CEO Lynette Marshall. "This figure represents gifts from alumni and friends, corporations, and foundations from throughout the country. And their generosity will make a profound impact on the life-changing work that is happening on our campus today and far into the future.”

Direct federal stimulus and COVID-19 aid, which started in FY20 and peaked in FY21, totaled $43 million in FY22.

The UI also secured $654.4 million in external funding for leading-edge research and creative discovery, including programs to advance treatments for disease, address the opioid epidemic, improve mental health care for Iowa’s youth, tackle resource challenges for renewable energy in the state, train the next generation of biostatisticians, and more.

The State Hygienic Laboratory continued to receive funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via the Iowa Department of Public Health, including 115 million dollars in multiyear awards to meet the high demand for COVID-19 testing and enhance laboratory preparedness for preventing and controlling future infectious disease outbreaks.

Projects funded in FY22 include:

• The Iowa Center for School Mental Health, a partnership between the UI College of Education and the Iowa Department of Education, provides $20 million over two years to address the state’s rising mental health and well-being needs of pre-K–12 students and educators. Allison Bruhn, associate professor of special education in the College of Education and executive director of the center, is leading the project.  
• Karin Weber-Gasparoni, professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics in the College of Dentistry, received $731,000 in funding from the National Institutes of Health. The research team will evaluate the effectiveness of psychoeducational methods for working with low-income caregivers to improve behaviors to prevent cavities in high-risk children younger than 3.
• The Iowa Department of Justice awarded Alison Lynch, clinical professor of psychiatry in the Carver College of Medicine, a $3.5 million award to address the opioid crisis and addiction in the state of Iowa.
• In a project funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Brad Cramer, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a research team comprised of universities and state agencies in Iowa and Kansas will tackle resource challenges for renewable energy in the two states.
• The Brian and Colleen Walker family organized Sam’s Scramble for Sight, an annual golf outing and dinner in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to benefit the UI Institute for Vision Research. Now in its 10th year, the event has raised $4.5 million for the cause.