UW-Madison climbs back to sixth place in national research rankings

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has climbed back to sixth in the nation for university research spending for the first time since 2016. The latest figures show the state’s flagship school rose two spots in the rankings last year with nearly $2 billion in research spending. 

UW-Madison spent just more than $1.7 billion on research in 2023, according to the National Science Foundations annual Higher Education Research and Development ranking. That moved the university up from eighth in the nation, where it had been since 2018.

UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Brzezinska told WPR the Higher Education Research and Development, or HERD, ranking is a high national recognition with 920 other public and private universities in contention. 

“It’s also a phenomenal tool for faculty hiring and retention and also for bringing more students and even better students, even though I have to say our students are phenomenal,” Brzezinska said. “The talent at UW-Madison is amazing.”

UW-Madison had been ranked in the top-five universities for decades until 2016, when it fell to sixth place. At the time, former Chancellor Rebecca Blank cited state budget cuts to state universities as one driver of the decline.

In 2018, UW-Madison’s rankings dropped to eighth in the nation, where it remained until this year.

Brzezinska said despite the rise in HERD’s national rankings, UW-Madison isn’t done. According to the HERD report, the fifth-ranked University of Washington in Seattle spent just $2 million more on research last year than UW-Madison.

“The difference between us and the number five (school) is really tiny, and we are very committed to supporting our research enterprise, growing our research enterprise, bringing in more talent, and, of course, bringing in more partners,” Brzezinska said.

Last year, UW-Madison’s research spending grew by more than $208 million, or 14 percent, compared to figures from 2022 according to the national data. The university states nearly half of UW-Madison’s research spending came from grants from federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense.