Children’s Academic Partner, Emory University Department of Pediatrics, Ranks in Top 5 for NIH Research Funding

ATLANTA (February 8, 2024) - Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, a proud academic partner of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, received $47 million in federal research grant dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2023 for pediatrics departments, according to rankings released from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. The program has maintained a top 5 ranking since 2016, achieving 8 consecutive years of this top ranking.

Total extramural funding for the department during Emory's 2023 fiscal year was $164 million, the highest amount in its history, exceeding 15% of all research funding for the university. In addition to the NIH funding, other extramural sources included 56 different research foundations and hospitals, including significant funding from the Marcus Foundation and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as well as Pfizer.

The funding allows researchers to work towards cures, and on treatments, innovations, and diagnostics for a variety of childhood diseases including autism, infectious diseases, cancer and blood disorders, cardiovascular disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and more. Learn more about these research projects and others from the past year in the Children's and Emory 2023 Research Report: Hope and Healing Through Innovation.

"The once tiny Department of Pediatrics had only $8 million in total extramural funding in 2005," said Lucky Jain, MD, Pediatrician-in-Chief of Children's and Chair of the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. "In the same year, Children's started planning a path to research excellence. Through this effort and other outstanding commitments, we have now achieved the highest amount of extramural funding in our history. NIH and other extramural funding are only possible through the astounding contributions of our investigators, 30 of whom received $1 million or more."

The Children's and Emory partnership facilitates leading-edge pediatric research, training, and innovation so that Children's can deliver the best outcomes possible for patients and families. Rankings are calculated by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research and only take into account direct NIH grants, which help develop research for the public good and were awarded to between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023. The rankings do not include NIH contracts, which are a means of procuring service for the government, such as the $68 million in contracts awarded to Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, during this timeframe. In addition to $47 million in NIH grant funding that led to the No. 5 ranking, more than 1,800 publications in more than 800 journals in the same period helped support groundbreaking efforts to develop new treatments or cures in 50 specialty areas.

The NIH is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world, granting more than 80 percent of its budget to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other research institutions in every state and around the world. The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research is a trusted nonprofit that utilizes data annually on all research and development contracts awarded by the NIH. Children's is grateful for the support of donors whose contributions also help make this research possible. Visit choa.org/research or med.emory.edu/departments/pediatrics to learn more.