Georgia Institute of Technology Materials Science and Engineering

The Georgia Institute of Technology has broken into the top 20 in higher education research and development spending for the first time in a decade. The ranking, based on an annual survey conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF), reflects a year of innovations in healthcare, computing, and sustainability research — even amidst a global pandemic.

While overall higher education research spending slowed to 3.3% growth in fiscal year 2020, the Georgia Tech research enterprise, which includes the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), rose to 9.3% – or approximately $1,049 million in expenditures.

Georgia Tech placed among top R1 or research-intensive universities, such as Johns Hopkins University, which ranked No. 1 (with $3,110 million in expenditures), and Harvard University, which rounded out the top 10 (with $1,240 million in expenditures). Georgia Tech was the only technological university to place in the top 20 and had the second highest year-to-year growth, behind Texas A&M University. A top 20 ranking is particularly significant, as Georgia Tech achieved it without a medical school. Nationally, medical schools account for a quarter of all research expenditures.

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