National ranking reflects how the college is unleashing the potential of people and ideas to positively impact the health of a global community and advance nursing science.
UCF’s College of Nursing ranks No. 35 among nursing schools in the nation for federal research funding according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.
The nonprofit organization ranks annually academic institutions and researchers based on funding awards received from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the world’s largest public source of funding of biomedical and behavioral research.
For fiscal year 2023, UCF College of Nursing was awarded $2.64 million in NIH funding awards. In the 2022/2023 academic year, the college received more than $4.74 million in total grant funding — the most in its history.
UCF is among the nation’s most innovative universities, ranked No. 14 by U.S. News and World Report, and ranking No. 21 among U.S. public universities for producing patents.
Among the patents contributing to the university’s rankings are several from College of Nursing faculty members, including an innovation that brings the virtual and physical worlds together to enhance trauma training for healthcare providers.
“Our world-renowned faculty experts are innovators, solving our world’s most pressing healthcare challenges, and are active in research to generate the evidence needed for today’s evidence-based practice and improve patient care,” said Mary Lou Sole, Dean of the College of Nursing.
“The college has always been committed to research excellence, but over the past few years, we have bolstered that commitment to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, mentor new faculty and student researchers, and focus more on federal funding for faculty research. These new rankings are the result of our efforts,” says internationally renowned researcher Carmen Giurgescu, associate dean of research.
“I am proud of our faculty and staff for their commitment to advancing nursing science to impact the health of our communities, and our collective future is bright,” added Sole. “We will unleash even more potential of our people and ideas with our new home at UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Campus, which will foster greater interdisciplinary collaboration in research and innovation” added Sole.
Some of the UCF College of Nursing NIH-funded research studies that contributed to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranking include:
- A $2.3M study to test an innovative intervention to prevent falls, which is the leading cause of injury and hospitalization among older adults,
- A $1.85M grant to pilot a five-year, multidisciplinary program to increase diversity among student researchers focused on health disparities in aging,
- A $2.5M study to test an innovative educational game and intervention to improve life for older adults with cancer, and
- A $3.3M study to examine the epigenetic, or biological, age of pregnant Black women and its potential in determining risk for preterm birth.
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