UVM Attains Sought-After R1 Research Status

University of Vermont campus Credit: Courtesy of UVM

The University of Vermont received a classification this week that it’s been working toward for years: the Carnegie Foundation’s R1 Research Activity Designation, reserved for colleges and universities that demonstrate the highest commitment to research and graduate studies.

The designation will help UVM attract grants and talent, interim President Patricia Prelock said in a prepared statement on Thursday.

“This milestone reflects not only our commitment to academic excellence but also our role as a driver of innovation and opportunity for Vermont and beyond,” she said.

With the competition for students heating up over the past several years and enrollment stagnant, UVM has been looking to research funding to help supplement tuition income. The R1 status reflects efforts by a succession of presidents who have worked to increase opportunities for groundbreaking work in the sciences and humanities.

In 2020, then-president Suresh Garimella hired Kirk Dombrowski to run UVM’s Office of the Vice President for Research. The school attracted $227 million in research funding in fiscal year 2021, and Dombrowski is widely credited with increasing that over subsequent years. He did so by drawing in big funders such as the National Science Foundation and establishing new partnerships with Essex Junction chipmaker GlobalFoundries. UVM attracted more than $260 million in research funding last year, the university said.

UVM said its faculty members have garnered nearly 700 research awards to launch more than 1,000 new projects including climate change and public health, aided by government agencies, corporate partners, foundations and donors.

About $100 million of the research funding that came in last year went to the Larner College of Medicine, where scientists are developing new drugs and working with researchers at other universities on several studies. Attaining R1 status will help UVM amplify its impact by attracting top scholars and scientists, as well as students, officials said.

“Achieving R1 status is a transformative step for any university, signifying a leap into the highest echelon of research institutions,” Dombrowski said in the prepared statement.

UVM was one of several institutions that achieved the R1 designation this year. Others include the University of Idaho, University of North Dakota, and the University of Wyoming, as well as private colleges: Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and American University in Washington, D.C.

Vermont is the last state in New England to see its university acquire this designation. The University of Massachusetts campuses in Amherst, Boston and Lowell have R1 status, as do the University of Maine, University of Rhode Island, University of Connecticut and University of New Hampshire.

Because UVM is relying on federal grants to bolster tuition income, it could be vulnerable to cuts proposed by the Trump administration in January.

Trump is targeting funding that supports programs working on diversity, climate and environmental justice — all topics that are the subject of work under way at UVM and most other institutions. On February 3, a federal judge temporarily blocked a funding freeze on grants and loans.

Richard Cate, the university’s vice president for finance and administration, said on Thursday that he and other top university officials are following the situation in Washington very closely, but he can’t predict if or how UVM will be affected.

“With the injunctions and lawsuits going on, and Congress talking, and everything that is proposed, we’re kind of in a wait-and-see situation,” he said.