{
  "study": {
    "slug": "nih-research-funding-concentration-2026",
    "title": "Where NIH research money goes: a concentration story, 2026",
    "standfirst": "Of the 2,682 institutions that won NIH research dollars in fiscal year 2025, the top 100 — 3.7% of awardees — captured 73.3% of the $41.4 billion awarded. The same money lands in a handful of states: institutions in just 10 states took 64.0% of it, and three states (California, New York, Massachusetts) took a third.",
    "desk": "access",
    "article_type": "Original Research",
    "published": "2026-06-16",
    "issue": 78,
    "doi": "10.5072/fonteum/nih-research-funding-concentration-2026",
    "url": "https://fonteum.com/research/nih-research-funding-concentration-2026",
    "methodology_version": "nih-reporter/v1"
  },
  "data_as_of": "2026-06-16",
  "datasets": [
    {
      "slug": "nih-reporter",
      "name": "NIH RePORTER",
      "publisher": "NIH — Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools",
      "upstream_url": "https://reporter.nih.gov/"
    }
  ],
  "key_findings": [
    {
      "number": "73.3%",
      "finding": "of the $41.4 billion in NIH research dollars awarded in fiscal year 2025 went to just the top 100 awardee institutions — 3.7% of the 2,682 institutions that won any funding. The top 50 took 56.2%, the top 25 took 38.3%, and the top 10 took 19.4%",
      "dataset": "nih-reporter"
    },
    {
      "number": "$974M",
      "finding": "went to the single largest awardee institution across 1,700 awards — 2.35% of the entire national total on its own. The ten largest institutions, each a research university or academic medical center, together hold 19.4% of all FY2025 NIH award dollars",
      "dataset": "nih-reporter"
    },
    {
      "number": "5.2%",
      "finding": "is the combined share of NIH dollars held by the 83.1% of awardee institutions that drew under $5 million apiece. 1,598 of the 2,682 institutions (59.6%) received exactly one award all year — the long tail is wide and thin",
      "dataset": "nih-reporter"
    },
    {
      "number": "64.0%",
      "finding": "of FY2025 NIH research dollars landed at institutions in just 10 states. The top three — California, New York, and Massachusetts — took 32.8% between them; California alone drew $5.82 billion, 14.1% of the national total. The other 46 of 56 state and territory codes split the remaining 36.0%",
      "dataset": "nih-reporter"
    },
    {
      "number": "179,957",
      "finding": "funded-award records across fiscal years 2024-2026 make up the file, snapshot dated 2026-06-14 — 81,521 distinct projects and $98.8 billion in all. Every figure is a count over published award records; no principal investigator is named, ranked, or scored",
      "dataset": "nih-reporter"
    }
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "What is NIH RePORTER?",
      "a": "NIH RePORTER is the National Institutes of Health's public database of federally funded research projects. Each record carries a project title, fiscal year, award amount, principal investigators, and the awardee organization. It is key-less, public, and in the public domain as a U.S.-government work, attributed to NIH RePORTER."
    },
    {
      "q": "How concentrated is NIH research funding?",
      "a": "Very. In fiscal year 2025, the top 100 of 2,682 awardee institutions — 3.7% of them — captured 73.3% of the $41.4 billion awarded. The top 50 took 56.2%, the top 25 took 38.3%, and the ten largest institutions alone took 19.4%. At the other end, the 83.1% of institutions that drew under $5 million apiece shared just 5.2% of the money."
    },
    {
      "q": "Which institutions receive the most NIH funding?",
      "a": "Large research universities and academic medical centers. The ten largest FY2025 awardees — led by Johns Hopkins University at $974.0 million, then the University of California, San Francisco, Washington University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan — together hold 19.4% of all NIH award dollars. These are institution-level totals over public award records, not a ranking of any individual researcher."
    },
    {
      "q": "Which states get the most NIH research money?",
      "a": "California leads with $5.82 billion in FY2025, 14.1% of the national total, followed by New York (9.5%) and Massachusetts (9.2%). Institutions in just 10 states captured 64.0% of all NIH research dollars; the top three states alone took 32.8%, while the other 46 of 56 state and territory codes split the remaining 36.0%."
    },
    {
      "q": "Does a large grant total mean the research is better?",
      "a": "No. A grant total records where federal research money went, not a judgment of scientific merit or quality. Concentration reflects the structure of the research enterprise — where large universities and academic medical centers cluster — and this study draws no inference about the quality of any funded project or any researcher."
    },
    {
      "q": "Are principal investigators linked to provider profiles?",
      "a": "No. NIH RePORTER records are name-keyed — principal investigators are recorded by name and the awardee as an organization, with no NPI in the source. The NPI-to-entity-graph link is deferred, so funding totals render on no individual provider profile. Every figure in this study is an aggregate at the institution, state, or institute level."
    },
    {
      "q": "Can I reproduce these figures?",
      "a": "Yes. Every number is a direct count or sum over the public nih_reporter_projects table — the NIH RePORTER project file, snapshot dated 2026-06-14 — with no modeling. The exact SQL for the institutional concentration, the long-tail split, the state breakdown, and the funding-institute mix is published in the reproducibility block below."
    }
  ],
  "citation": {
    "apa": "Fonteum Research. (2026, June 16). Where NIH research money goes: a concentration story, 2026. Fonteum Research, Issue 78. https://doi.org/10.5072/fonteum/nih-research-funding-concentration-2026",
    "url": "https://fonteum.com/research/nih-research-funding-concentration-2026"
  },
  "reproducible_sql": "-- Where NIH research money goes — and how few institutions and states capture\n-- most of it. Fully reproducible query.\n--\n-- Question: of the federal research dollars NIH awarded in its most recent\n-- complete fiscal year, how concentrated is the funding by awardee institution\n-- and by state? The lead figure: of the 2,682 institutions that won NIH\n-- research dollars in fiscal year 2025, the top 100 (3.7% of awardees) captured\n-- 73.3% of the $41.4 billion awarded. Concentration is a structure-of-funding\n-- signal, NOT a quality, merit, or wrongdoing signal of any kind, and nothing\n-- here describes or ranks any individual principal investigator.\n--\n-- Source:\n--   public.nih_reporter_projects — NIH RePORTER public project file, pulled\n--     from the NIH RePORTER API v2 (api.reporter.nih.gov/v2/projects/search).\n--     179,957 funded-award records across FY2024-2026; 81,521 distinct core\n--     projects; snapshot updated_at 2026-06-14. Public, key-less, public domain\n--     (U.S.-government works). methodology_version = 'nih-reporter/v1'.\n--\n-- Grain: one row per appl_id — a single funded application/award action. In\n--   FY2025 there are 72,550 rows and 72,550 distinct appl_id (no duplication),\n--   so summing award_amount across rows is the total of award dollars. A\n--   \"core project\" (core_project_num) groups the multi-year/sub-project actions\n--   under one grant; FY2025 holds 57,988 distinct core projects.\n--\n-- Reference period: FY2025 is the most recent COMPLETE fiscal year on the file\n--   (FY2026 is partial — only 27,692 rows at this snapshot), so every\n--   concentration figure below is computed over FY2025 to avoid a partial-year\n--   artifact. award_amount is NULL on 1,822 of the 72,550 FY2025 rows (training\n--   awards and other actions with no dollar figure published); those rows are\n--   excluded from dollar sums and from the institution/state denominators.\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (1) Universe reconciliation — the published file at a glance, by fiscal year.\n-- ============================================================================\nSELECT\n  fiscal_year,\n  count(*)                                            AS award_rows,\n  count(DISTINCT core_project_num)                    AS distinct_projects,\n  count(DISTINCT organization_name)                   AS awardee_orgs,\n  count(*) FILTER (WHERE award_amount IS NULL)        AS null_amount,\n  round(sum(award_amount) / 1e9, 2)                   AS funded_b\nFROM public.nih_reporter_projects\nGROUP BY fiscal_year\nORDER BY fiscal_year;\n--  2024  79,715 rows · 2,900 orgs · $42.26B\n--  2025  72,550 rows · 2,753 orgs · $41.40B   <- most recent COMPLETE year\n--  2026  27,692 rows ·   896 orgs · $15.15B   (partial)\n--  whole file: 179,957 rows · 81,521 distinct core projects · $98.81B ·\n--  56 distinct organization_state codes · 38 funding ICs · snapshot 2026-06-14.\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (2) HEADLINE: institutional concentration in FY2025. Rank every awardee\n--     institution by total award dollars, then read the cumulative share of\n--     the top N. The top 100 of 2,682 institutions hold 73.3% of the money.\n-- ============================================================================\nWITH y AS (\n  SELECT * FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n  WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\n),\norg AS (\n  SELECT organization_name, sum(award_amount) AS amt\n  FROM y GROUP BY organization_name\n),\nr AS (\n  SELECT *, row_number() OVER (ORDER BY amt DESC) AS rk,\n         sum(amt) OVER () AS total, count(*) OVER () AS n_orgs\n  FROM org\n)\nSELECT\n  max(n_orgs)                                                       AS awardee_orgs,\n  round(max(total) / 1e9, 2)                                        AS total_b,\n  round(100.0 * sum(amt) FILTER (WHERE rk <= 10)  / max(total), 1)  AS top10_pct,\n  round(100.0 * sum(amt) FILTER (WHERE rk <= 25)  / max(total), 1)  AS top25_pct,\n  round(100.0 * sum(amt) FILTER (WHERE rk <= 50)  / max(total), 1)  AS top50_pct,\n  round(100.0 * sum(amt) FILTER (WHERE rk <= 100) / max(total), 1)  AS top100_pct\nFROM r;\n--  awardee_orgs 2,682 · total $41.40B\n--  top 10 = 19.4% · top 25 = 38.3% · top 50 = 56.2% · top 100 = 73.3%\n--  (top 100 = 3.7% of the 2,682 awardee institutions.)\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (3) The ten largest awardee institutions, FY2025, by total award dollars and\n--     share of the national total. These ten alone hold 19.4% of the file.\n-- ============================================================================\nSELECT\n  organization_name,\n  organization_state,\n  count(*)                                                          AS awards,\n  round(sum(award_amount) / 1e6, 1)                                 AS amount_m,\n  round(100.0 * sum(award_amount)\n        / (SELECT sum(award_amount) FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n           WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL), 2) AS pct_of_all\nFROM public.nih_reporter_projects\nWHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\nGROUP BY organization_name, organization_state\nORDER BY sum(award_amount) DESC\nLIMIT 10;\n--  Johns Hopkins University            MD  1,700  $974.0M  2.35%\n--  University of California, San Fran.  CA  1,699  $919.5M  2.22%\n--  Washington University               MO  1,405  $841.6M  2.03%\n--  University of Pennsylvania          PA  1,460  $824.6M  1.99%\n--  University of Michigan at Ann Arbor MI  1,507  $819.9M  1.98%\n--  University of Pittsburgh            PA  1,325  $762.6M  1.84%\n--  Yale University                     CT  1,276  $736.2M  1.78%\n--  Stanford University                 CA  1,324  $729.4M  1.76%\n--  Duke University                     NC  1,104  $724.8M  1.75%\n--  Massachusetts General Hospital      MA  1,187  $700.3M  1.69%\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (4) THE LONG TAIL — most institutions get very little. 83.1% of awardee\n--     institutions drew under $5M each and split just 5.2% of the money, and\n--     1,598 of the 2,682 (59.6%) received exactly one award all year.\n-- ============================================================================\nWITH y AS (\n  SELECT * FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n  WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\n),\norg AS (\n  SELECT organization_name, count(*) AS awards, sum(award_amount) AS amt\n  FROM y GROUP BY organization_name\n)\nSELECT\n  count(*)                                                          AS awardee_orgs,\n  count(*) FILTER (WHERE amt < 5e6)                                 AS orgs_under_5m,\n  round(100.0 * count(*) FILTER (WHERE amt < 5e6) / count(*), 1)    AS pct_orgs_under_5m,\n  round(100.0 * sum(amt) FILTER (WHERE amt < 5e6) / sum(amt), 1)    AS dollar_share_under_5m,\n  count(*) FILTER (WHERE awards = 1)                                AS single_award_orgs,\n  round(100.0 * count(*) FILTER (WHERE awards = 1) / count(*), 1)   AS pct_single_award\nFROM org;\n--  2,682 awardee orgs · 2,228 under $5M (83.1%) holding 5.2% of dollars ·\n--  1,598 single-award orgs (59.6%).\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (5) WHERE the money lands — top 10 states by FY2025 award dollars, with each\n--     state's share of the national total. Institutions in 10 states capture\n--     64.0% of NIH dollars; the top three (CA, NY, MA) alone take 32.8%.\n-- ============================================================================\nWITH y AS (\n  SELECT * FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n  WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\n    AND organization_state IS NOT NULL\n),\nst AS (\n  SELECT organization_state, count(*) AS awards, sum(award_amount) AS amt\n  FROM y GROUP BY organization_state\n),\nr AS (\n  SELECT *, row_number() OVER (ORDER BY amt DESC) AS rk,\n         sum(amt) OVER () AS total, count(*) OVER () AS n_states\n  FROM st\n)\nSELECT organization_state, awards,\n       round(amt / 1e9, 2)               AS amount_b,\n       round(100.0 * amt / total, 1)     AS pct_of_all,\n       rk\nFROM r WHERE rk <= 10 ORDER BY rk;\n--  CA $5.82B 14.1% · NY $3.95B 9.5% · MA $3.80B 9.2% · PA $2.58B 6.2% ·\n--  MD $2.36B 5.7% · TX $2.13B 5.2% · NC $1.91B 4.6% · WA $1.42B 3.4% ·\n--  IL $1.39B 3.4% · MI $1.13B 2.7%\n--  top 3 = 32.8% · top 5 = 44.7% · top 10 = 64.0% · the other 46 codes\n--  (of 56) split the remaining 36.0%.\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (6) WHICH NIH institutes write the checks — top 8 funding ICs in FY2025 by\n--     award dollars. The National Cancer Institute alone funds 15.1% of the\n--     dollars; the top three ICs fund 39.2% (exact aggregate; the displayed\n--     per-IC shares of 15.1 + 13.1 + 11.1 sum to 39.3 only because each is\n--     rounded — the unrounded top-3 share is 39.18%, which rounds to 39.2%).\n-- ============================================================================\nSELECT\n  agency_ic_admin,\n  count(*)                                                          AS awards,\n  round(sum(award_amount) / 1e9, 2)                                 AS amount_b,\n  round(100.0 * sum(award_amount)\n        / (SELECT sum(award_amount) FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n           WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL), 1) AS pct_of_all\nFROM public.nih_reporter_projects\nWHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\nGROUP BY agency_ic_admin\nORDER BY sum(award_amount) DESC\nLIMIT 8;\n--  National Cancer Institute                              $6.24B  15.1%\n--  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases  $5.40B  13.1%\n--  National Institute on Aging                            $4.58B  11.1%\n--  National Heart Lung and Blood Institute                $3.65B   8.8%\n--  National Institute of General Medical Sciences         $3.54B   8.5%\n--  National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke  $2.55B   6.2%\n--  National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney    $2.18B   5.3%\n--  National Institute of Mental Health                    $1.90B   4.6%\n\n-- (6b) The exact top-3-IC aggregate behind the 39.2% headline — computed as a\n--      single share so it does not depend on summing the rounded per-IC shares.\nWITH ic AS (\n  SELECT agency_ic_admin, sum(award_amount) AS amt\n  FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n  WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\n  GROUP BY agency_ic_admin\n),\nr AS (\n  SELECT *, row_number() OVER (ORDER BY amt DESC) AS rk, sum(amt) OVER () AS total\n  FROM ic\n)\nSELECT round(100.0 * sum(amt) FILTER (WHERE rk <= 3) / max(total), 1) AS top3_ic_pct\nFROM r;\n--  top3_ic_pct 39.2   (exact 39.1848%)\n\n-- ============================================================================\n-- (7) THE TOP-VS-TAIL CONTRAST, exact. The single largest awardee institution\n--     drew more in FY2025 than the 1,300 smallest-funded institutions did\n--     combined: $974.0M vs $541.6M.\n-- ============================================================================\nWITH y AS (\n  SELECT * FROM public.nih_reporter_projects\n  WHERE fiscal_year = 2025 AND award_amount IS NOT NULL\n),\norg AS (\n  SELECT organization_name, sum(award_amount) AS amt\n  FROM y GROUP BY organization_name\n),\nr AS (\n  SELECT *, row_number() OVER (ORDER BY amt DESC) AS rk, count(*) OVER () AS n\n  FROM org\n)\nSELECT\n  round((SELECT amt FROM r WHERE rk = 1) / 1e6, 1)               AS top1_m,\n  round((SELECT sum(amt) FROM r WHERE rk > n - 1300) / 1e6, 1)   AS bottom_1300_m\nFROM r LIMIT 1;\n--  top1_m 974.0  ·  bottom_1300_m 541.6\n--  (the largest single institution outdraws the 1,300 smallest combined.)",
  "license": "U.S. Government Works (federal sources; 17 U.S.C. §105)",
  "generated_by": "Fonteum — https://fonteum.com",
  "notes": "Aggregate, source-traced figures frozen to the snapshot above. Reproduce by running reproducible_sql against the cited federal dataset; no per-entity records are included."
}