The City University of New York reported $672 million in external funding for research and other sponsored programs in Fiscal Year 2024, a record high for the University and a 6% increase over last year, which was the previous high for CUNY’s Research Foundation (RFCUNY). The gains reflect the success of ongoing efforts to support more than 10,000 faculty, student and staff researchers and elevate the impact of their work. Over the past decade, CUNY has increased external funding for research and other sponsored activ, ities and programs more than 78%.
CUNY also reports increased expenditures on research and other sponsored activities, a related and widely reported indicator of research trends that tracks these activities over time. The University reports expenditures of external grant funds totaling $622 million in FY 2024, an increase of about 68% since 2014. When accounting is finalized in January, campuses are projecting more than $50 million in additional research expenditures for FY 2024.
“CUNY makes integral contributions to our communities through the strong public impact of thousands of faculty researchers and the many ways in which their work improves the quality of life for residents of New York and beyond,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “CUNY’s record growth in funding from external sources, along with our rising expenditures for research and development, reflect the success of this critical enterprise, which creates knowledge and advances our progress in pursuit of solutions to the many pressing scientific and societal challenges we face.”
The Chancellor announced the funding milestones at a Thursday celebration, marking the 10th anniversary of CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), an arm of the CUNY Graduate Center located on the upper Manhattan campus of The City College of New York. In the decade since its establishment, the ASRC has attracted more than $132 million in sponsored research funding and helped propel key advances by New York’s academic, start-up and corporate communities.
The anniversary event, “Catalyzing Change, Celebrating Gains: A Decade of Visionary Science for the Public Good,” included remarks by CUNY professor Mandë Holford, the first-ever CUNY researcher to win the prestigious Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health. Holford, whose work explores therapeutic opportunities and properties of venoms from marine mollusks, was recently named the inaugural Anne Welsh McNulty Chair of Science Innovation and Leadership at Hunter College. The keynote speaker was Dr. William G. Kaelin Jr. of Harvard Medical School, a 2019 Nobel laureate.
“The increase in research and sponsored project expenditures is a direct result of the hard work of our outstanding CUNY faculty, staff and students,” said Rosemarie D. Wesson, CUNY associate vice chancellor and university vice provost for research. “Congratulations to all and we look forward to continuing to grow the research ecosystem within CUNY and amplify the impacts of the research on our New York City communities and beyond.”
“The Research Foundation of the City University of New York has been supporting CUNY’s management of research and sponsored programs with professional staff for over 60 years,” said Hector Cordero-Guzman, president of the Research Foundation of CUNY. “The increase in awards under the Chancellor’s leadership has been the result of growing investments in CUNY’s research infrastructure combined with the creativity and ingenuity of our faculty, whose research work and interests are relevant and attractive to federal, state, city and private funders and sponsors.”
“The ASRC’s milestone 10th anniversary is a welcome opportunity to celebrate the strength and impact of science research and education across CUNY campuses,” said Joshua C. Brumberg, president of the CUNY Graduate Center. “We are immensely proud of the hundreds of millions of dollars that ASRC researchers and Graduate Center STEM faculty have attracted for their cutting-edge work, which stands to benefit CUNY, New York, and the broader society. From next-generation sensors to flood-monitoring technology, quantum computing to cancer therapies, Graduate Center faculty and students are making a difference through discovery, and I’m confident that the next decade will be equally bold and exciting.”
Strategic Priorities
CUNY has prioritized efforts to amplify the quantity and quality of engaged public impact research and scholarship. The University’s 2023-2030 strategic roadmap, “CUNY Lifting New York,” set a seven-year goal of increasing by 20% the total grant dollars awarded for research and the number of grants. Awards data from RFCUNY shows total external funding for research is well ahead of pace to meet CUNY’s seven-year goals.
The awards advance the work of researchers and scholars across CUNY’s 25 campuses and all five New York City boroughs, whose efforts are spurring advances in areas that include the life sciences and medicine, energy and environmental justice, climate resiliency, transportation, robotics, cybersecurity and more.
This work also creates a wide range of experiential learning opportunities for CUNY students and strengthens the degree-to-career pipeline. A prime example is a $75 million gift from the Simons Foundation, announced in January by Gov. Kathy Hochul in conjunction with her landmark Empire AI initiative. With the donation, at the time the largest in CUNY’s history, the University will add 25 faculty researchers, create a Master of Science degree program in computational science and provide new research experiences for undergraduates.
