Which U.S. Schools Spend the Most Money?

Twenty universities spent more than a third of total federal R&D expenses in FY 2023. Another 640 universities spent the remaining two-thirds of federal R&D funds.

Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) had the most federally funded R&D expenses, at $3.32 billion, 2.8 times higher than the next-highest university. Forty three percent of that went to engineering, and 27.0% to life sciences. The remaining 30% was split between all other research and development categories.

Four other schools spent more than $1 billion in federal money for R&D: the University of Washington, Seattle ($1.19B); the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) and University of California, San Diego ($1.08B each); and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ($1.04B).