Trends in R01 and R01 Equivalent Funding to Radiology

With a budget of almost $48 billion in 2024, including $37 billion allocated for extramural funding, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the major funding source for biomedical research in the United States. Given the multi-faceted impact of NIH funding on academic institutions and their communities, we sought to characterize trends in research project grant funding to departments of radiology. This study aimed to assess trends in R01 and R01 equivalent award funding to departments of radiology from 2014 to 2024.

All funding data were retrieved from NIH RePORTER (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools) and limited to R01 and R01 equivalent awards (R01⁺) to all clinical departments (ACDs) from NIH FY 2014 and FY 2024. Awards and funding data included ACDs as categorized by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. Information on principal investigator (PI) advanced degrees was obtained by web searches and visiting the PI's faculty page through their respective academic institution.

From 2014 to 2024, there was a 54.3% increase in the number of R01s awarded to radiology as compared to a 31.7% increase in R01s awarded to ACDs. There was a 69.0% increase in the number of R01⁺s awarded to radiology as compared to a 34.4% increase in R01⁺s awarded to ACDs during this same period.

Since FY2014, there has been an increase in funding from the NIH to ACDs and specifically to radiology, but departments of radiology are outpacing ACDs in several key R01 and R01⁺ funding metrics, including greater increases in the number of awards.