The University of Colorado awarded approximately $1.4 billion in federal, state, international and foundational research funding to its campuses during the 2019-2020 fiscal years, the fourth consecutive year in which grants exceeded $1 billion.

“The research funding our prolific faculty bring in has a tremendous economic ripple effect on our state, but more important, it allows them to continue their excellent work addressing some of society’s most pressing issues in energy, health care, climate change, space, cybersecurity and more,” said CU President Mark Kennedy in a statement on Thursday.

A majority of the money, $829.7 million, came from federal agencies. There was also a vast disparity in the funding awarded to the Anschutz Medical Campus and CU-Boulder: 98% of all awards went to those to campuses, with the remainder destined for the Denver and Colorado Springs locations.

Among the research grants CU received in the last year were $6.7 million to establish a diabetes research community at Anschutz, which came from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Another $11 million from the National Institutes of Health will go toward studying the adolescent brain at CU-Boulder. 

Research funding can be for capital expenditures, equipment, travel and salaries, and the university cannot redirect it to non-research purposes.