New Record: University of Hawai’i Receives Over $58 Million in Federal Biomedical Research Grants from NIH in Fiscal Year 2023

The University of Hawai’i has recently received over $58 million in federal biomedical research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Fiscal Year 2023. This funding has led to $158 million in economic activity in the state and supported 819 local jobs. According to a report by United for Medical Research, this economic impact is just one of many benefits of NIH funding, which also supports employment and contributes to the purchase of research-related goods, services, and materials.

In fact, for every dollar of NIH funding, $2.46 is generated in new economic activity. Vassilis L. Syrmos, Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Hawai’i, emphasized the importance of NIH funding in allowing researchers to cure diseases, eliminate cancer, and improve health equity in underrepresented groups and rural communities in Hawai’i and the Pacific. He also highlighted how these grants inject essential dollars into the state’s economy through research-related expenditures.

In Fiscal Year 2023, Hawaii received $68.7 million in NIH funding, with 85% of it going to the University of Hawai’i. The majority of this funding went towards projects at the University of Hawai’i Cancer Center and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine. Nationally, NIH funding totaled $37 billion in Fiscal Year 2023, supporting over 400,000 jobs and generating nearly $93 billion in new economic activity.