Research & Technology Transfer

Goals

Excellence in research and scholarly activity is a central tenet of the University of Michigan’s mission. These activities have the power to expand knowledge, increase our understanding of the world, improve lives, and contribute to the common good. The broad scope, overall size, and emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches throughout the institution contribute to its standing as one of the world’s leading universities.

Support for research and scholarship comes from the federal government, private sector, foundations, and the U-M’s operating budget itself. Federal grants awarded to University of Michigan researchers help to drive innovation and economic growth, supporting thousands of jobs and generating millions in research-related spending across the United States.

The university expects that research discoveries by its faculty members have the potential to contribute to the development of innovative products and processes. The U-M places a high priority on supporting this kind of activity under the Innovation Partnerships organization, which works with U-M researchers and faculty to advance their innovations and bring them to market.

Overview

The university actively advances its research agenda through collaborative initiatives that integrate multiple academic fields and engage external partners, including industry, to foster innovation. In March 2025, U-M joined OpenAI’s consortium of leading research institutions called NextGenAI which is dedicated to using AI to accelerate research breakthroughs and transform education. The university’s Office of the Vice President for Research also established an Office of National Laboratories which aims to strengthen U-M partnerships with national laboratories and advance research opportunities by leading strategic planning and collaboration efforts across the university.

The university’s largest fraction of grant-supported work occurs in the biomedical and clinical sciences. The U-M Medical School alone regularly attracts more than $400 million each year in research grants. Federal agencies such as the NIH, Department of Energy, NASA, and Department of Defense fund these research efforts which lead to life-saving medical treatments, energy solutions, advanced space exploration and defense technologies. The Office of National Laboratories aims to support its partnerships with U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories.

Research is of special interest to the private sector. Innovation Partnerships works with faculty inventors to file patents and negotiate licensing agreements that benefit the university’s industry partners and fund additional research and development work on campus. In 2024, Innovation Partnerships launched the Accelerate Blue Foundry which “partners interested entrepreneurs with University of Michigan technologies that have the potential to become high-growth startups”. In certain instances, U-M faculty members establish companies to develop their inventions, thanks in part to an emerging campus culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

U-M’s research spending reaches across Michigan, benefiting businesses all over the state. Businesses in all 13 Michigan Congressional districts receive direct research-related funding from U-M. In 2024, Michigan’s 6th Congressional District in southeast Michigan saw the greatest economic benefit, with over $71 million in research spending. Additionally, U-M is part of the Research Universities for Michigan (RU4M), which is an alliance of Michigan’s four leading research institutions, focusing on innovations in life & health sciences, sustainability, AI, and advanced manufacturing to drive Michigan’s economic revitalization.

U-M Research Expenditures

U-M historical R&D expenditure trends have generally reflected changes in Federal non-defense R&D expenditures. In recent years, U-M has continued to invest in critical research despite uncertain federal funding.

9.1.1 Total Research Expenditures, Adjusted for Inflation, 1980-2024

   SOURCE: U-M Volume of Research (UMOR); American Association for the Advancement of Science Historical Trends in Federal R&D

The research expenditures displayed include those for the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. All other figures show data only for the Ann Arbor campus. Note: Starting in FY2007, research support originating from the U-M faculty medical group practice was included as research expenditures. Previously this was reported with clinical activity.

Research and scholarship have always been integral to the success of The University of Michigan, but only since the mid-19th century has substantial support for this research and scholarship come through outside sponsorship. The actual beginning of sponsored research at the university dates from 1920, when the College of Engineering established the Department of Engineering Research to increase university-industry contacts and to conduct industry-sponsored research. Sponsored research did not begin to grow dramatically until World War II, when the federal government looked to the nation’s universities for the scientific and technological expertise needed to win the war. During the postwar years, the research partnership between the federal government and universities increased and expanded steadily to include funding for social, medical, and basic scientific projects.

The university faces uncertainty over federal research funding amidst increased scrutiny of acceptable research topics. Despite this, the university continues to work with all funding partners to demonstrate the enduring value and impact of research at U of M.

U-M has grown research support from internal and non-federal sources over time. This has allowed the university to grow its research efforts despite fluctuating federal research funding.

   Source: U-M Financial Operations

The research expenditures displayed include those for the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. All other figures show data only for the Ann Arbor campus. Note: Starting in FY2007, research support originating from the U-M faculty medical group practice was included as research expenditures. Previously this was reported with clinical activity.

Direct research expenditures on the U-M campus are greater today compared to 2015 and are recovering from the spending decline precipitated by the COVID pandemic.

   SOURCE: U-M Financial Data

Direct expenditures cover salaries and benefits of researchers, whether faculty, staff or students, as well as equipment and supplies, research-related travel and other expenses tied to specific projects. Overhead expenditures are presented in chart 9.1.5.

Direct research expenditures for Humanities & the Arts was $33M in FY 2024 and an inflation-adjusted $35M in FY2014. Multidisciplinary research projects had direct expenditures of $46M in FY2024 and an inflation-adjusted $20M in FY2014.

About 45 percent of the total annual sponsored research expenditures on the Ann Arbor campus goes to salaries and benefits for faculty, staff and graduate students.

   Source: U-M Financial Operations

The FY2024 total externally funded research expenditures for the Ann Arbor campus was $1.369 billion, an increase of $88 million from the previous year. Salaries are the largest cost component.

Indirect costs (IDC) are the costs of university operations that are not assigned to a particular project, such as the costs for general research administration, utilities used in research space, and other services that contribute broadly to the operation of the university’s research enterprise.

The indirect cost recovery rates charged to non-federal sponsors, such as foundations, State of Michigan agencies, and private companies, vary according to the sponsor’s policies or through negotiations with the sponsor. In some situations, the recovery rate may not cover the actual expenses incurred by the U-M to support some of these projects.

For FY2024, 27 percent of the total research expenditures went to pay for indirect costs, which are collected as a percentage of the project budget at different rates depending on the type of research activity and the sponsor. The indirect cost recovery rate for research funded by the Federal government or industry is 56 percent for on-campus research and 26 percent for off-campus research.

Federal sponsored projects provide the majority of indirect cost recovery funds, which contribute to the overhead costs of conducting research.

   SOURCE: U-M Financial Data

Overhead spending covers items such as utilities, administration, and general maintenance of research facilities – known as “facilities & administration” or “indirect” costs – that supports the research enterprise.

Research Workforce

A Fall 2024 snapshot of personnel paid under sponsored projects shows that grants and contracts fund the full-time equivalent of 5,336 faculty members, post-docs, staff and students.

   SOURCE: U-M Human Resources Data

Many tenured and tenure-track faculty members play key roles in sponsored research activity. Research faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, graduate (and some undergraduate) students, and a subset of the staff also contribute in major ways to the research enterprise.

The Fall 2024 total represents an increase of 81 FTEs (1.5 percent) supported on sponsored projects compared to Fall 2023. This FTE total does not include faculty, staff, and student involvement in research and scholarship whose activities are paid for by the General Fund.

R&D Expenditures, U-M and Other Leading Institutions

U-M ranks second among U.S. public universities, and fourth among all U.S. universities on research expenditures.

9.3 University R&D Expenditures, U-M and Other Leading Institutions, FY2019-FY2023

   SOURCE: National Science Foundation, Higher Education Research and Development Survey

The U-M is one of the nation’s leading universities in total research spending for the past five years. Total expenditures include research spending from government sources, non- government sources, and the institution’s own budget.

The list above is ordered by total research expenditures for FY2023. Data for public universities are shaded in yellow; private university data are shaded in blue. The research expenditures displayed in this table and the chart for 9.1.1 include those for the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. All other figures show data only for the Ann Arbor campus.

Technology Transfer

Since Fiscal Year 2016, U-M researchers have reported 5,183 inventions, have engaged in 2,539 licensing agreements, and have been issued 2,374 U.S. patents.

   SOURCE: U-M Innovation Partnerships

Invention reports are descriptions of discoveries made by U-M faculty, staff and students with the potential to be further developed into new products or processes. Patents protect intellectual property that shows some promise for future development and application. License and option agreements are legal arrangements with companies (some of which have U-M faculty involvement) that allow the firms to use university-owned technology in products or processes being developed for the market.

Information about specific U-M innovations can be found on the Innovation Partnerships website.

Over the last decade, U-M discoveries have generated $224 million in revenues. The inventors and the University share these revenues, with U-M administration’s portion devoted to ongoing research and development.

   SOURCE: U-M Innovation Partnerships

Revenues from licensing agreements support technology transfer operations as well as provide valuable resources for investment in research, education, and innovation. Royalties are periodic payments by a licensee to the University of Michigan in order to have continued access to U-M-owned intellectual property. Equity sales include transfers of stock or cash payments by a licensee to U-M.

Royalty revenues reached an all-time high in FY2015. Nearly $75 million of that total came from a royalty agreement connected to a drug that was developed at U-M to help patients with Gaucher disease. Licensing revenue peaked again in FY2021 due to the success of several companies including Kinetica Labs, which launched motion capture applications to improve workplace safety, and U-M startup InheRET which developed a tool that maximizes patient information to identify people at risk for developing inherited cancers.

221 new companies based on U-M discoveries have been launched over the last decade.

   SOURCE: U-M Innovation Partnerships

While much of the new technology developed at U-M is licensed to existing companies for use in new products and processes, some inventions become the basis of new enterprises. Often this occurs when U-M inventors wish to have hands-on involvement in the further development of the technology.

To support the growing portfolio of U-M startup companies, Innovation Partnerships created the Accelerate Blue Fund — an evergreen venture fund designed to bridge the gap between initial startup launch and securing angel or venture capital funding. With the aim of helping more U-M innovations enter the world, Innovation Partnerships launched the Accelerate Blue Foundry in 2025. This new program connects startup founders with some of the most promising innovations stemming from U-M research.

A portfolio of U-M start-ups can be found at: innovationpartnerships.umich.edu/portfolio/