Research


Emory has continued its rapid growth in research funding. In fiscal year 2012, Emory faculty received:

  • $520.3 million in total research funding awards
  • $483.4 million in health sciences research funding awards
  • $350.9 million in federal research funding awards, led by the National Institutes of Health with $300.7 million

Emory is a member of the Association of American Universities, an association of 64 leading research universities whose members are considered to be on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship and solutions that contribute to society's economy, security and well-being.

In 2021, Emory University School of Medicine ranked 22 in the US News Research School Ranking. This particular ranking measures the research activity at a given institution. In addition to factors such as acceptance rates, MCAT scores, and GPA of admitted students, the Research Rank accounts for characteristics such as the number of NIH grants received by faculty and the amount of staff dedicated to solely research.

In 2021, Emory University was ranked 21st among the nation's top universities in the new Best Colleges guidebook from U.S. News and World Report.

Emory's faculty includes:


  • 23 members of the Institute of Medicine

  • 5 members of the National Academy of Sciences

  • 12 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  • 30 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

  • 1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and 2 Howard Hughes Professors

The Rollins School of Public Health was ranked as 7th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report (2007).

According to National Research Council rankings of U.S. graduate programs, 6 or our 9 programs rank in the top 15% of their peers.

Molecular & Systems Pharmacology ranks 9th, Immunology & Molecular Pathogenesis and Microbiology & Molecular Pathogenesis both rank 10th, Population Biology, Ecology & Evolution ranks 11th, Genetics & Molecular Biology ranks 14th, and Biochemistry, Cell & Developmental Biology ranks 22nd. 

Recent NIH rankings show that Emory continues its rapid growth in research funding. Emory is 18th overall among all NIH award recipients and is 20th in the nation among medical schools that receive NIH research dollars. In 2020 Emory had over $831 million in sponsored research funding, and over $507 million in research grant funding from the NIH.

In 2009 Emory's Winship Cancer Institute earned the prestigious National Cancer Institute Cancer Center (NCI) designation. With NCI designation Winship Cancer Institute joins the ranks of the nation's elite cancer research and treatment facilities, and becomes one of only seventy-one NCI cancer centers in the United States among the thousands of cancer facilities that exist (Emory Press Release).

Emory University has been selected as one of America's 25 New Elite 'Ivies' by Newsweek.

Seven research areas in the Graduate Division were ranked in the Top Ten based on Faculty Scholarly Productivity by the Chronicle of Higher Education. These research areas include ecology, evolutionary biology, immunology, microbiology, molecular pharmacology, nutrition sciences and pharmacology.

Emory announced a new Global Health Institute that will help address the most pressing health challenges around the world, particularly in poorer nations. The initial budget is $110 million (Emory Press Release).

Gilead Sciences and Royalty Pharma purchased the royalty interests for Emtricitabine, a leading anti-HIV/AIDS compound, and made a one-time cash payment of $525 million to Emory University. Dr. Dennis Liotta, one of the three researchers credited with discovering Emtricitabine, is a Division faculty member in the Molecular and Systems Pharmacology Program. This is believed to be the largest single sale of intellectual property in the history of American higher education (Emory Press Release).

Emory has announced the establishment of the new Emory Institute for Drug Discovery (EIDD). Dr. Dennis Liotta is the Director of the EIDD (Press Release). The Emory Vaccine Center has also formed an alliance with the Australian Centre for Vaccine Development at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, with the plan to establish an internationally recognized vaccine research program and develop new vaccines for human infectious diseases and cancers (Press Release).