The University of Maryland’s expanding investment in high-impact research—work that improves lives in communities across the state, nation, and world—helped propel it to No. 14 among all U.S. institutions and No. 9 among public institutions in the National Science Foundation’s latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey, the most widely recognized national benchmark for sponsored research activity.
The University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) are linked as a single research enterprise in the HERD survey, which ranked research and development spending at U.S. institutions in fiscal year 2024. This is the highest ranking for the research enterprise, which reported more than $1.5 billion in combined research expenditures—an increase of more than $154 million from the previous year.
“This rise in the HERD rankings reflects the strength of our unified research enterprise and the deep and impactful partnership between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore,” said Vice President for Research Patrick O’Shea. “By working in partnership across boundaries, we are accelerating discoveries that translate into real-world solutions. Our continued growth is a testament to the talent of our faculty, the dedication of our students and staff, and the state’s strong commitment to research that delivers measurable benefits for Maryland and beyond.”
That partnership was further strengthened in January with the launch of a transformative collaboration to tackle a broad spectrum of health challenges and advance medical innovation: the Edward & Jennifer St. John Center for Translational Annual Survey Puts University Research at No. 14 Overall, No. 9 Among Public InstitutionsEngineering and Medicine. Located on the fourth floor of 4MLK, a new state-of-the-art facility in the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore, the center is designed to ensure that real-world clinical needs directly inform the development of new devices, diagnostics, and treatments—accelerating the pathway from research to patient care.
O’Shea also points to the university’s leadership in rapidly growing research areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum science as key drivers of the university’s upward momentum in the HERD survey. In partnership with the state, UMCP announced the Capital of Quantum Initiative in early 2025, a landmark public-private effort to catalyze $1 billion in investments and position Maryland as a global leader in quantum information science and technology. Meanwhile, the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland, launched in spring 2024, serves as a collaborative hub for AI research and education, fostering partnerships and advancing human-centered AI in service of the public good.
Beyond the HERD survey, the University of Maryland research enterprise has earned significant national recognition across a range of measures. For its broad impact in cultivating entrepreneurial talent and driving innovation across disciplines and throughout the state, UMCP was named a top-10 school for entrepreneurship education for the 11th consecutive year by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine and received the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ (APLU) 2025 Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) Innovation Award. In addition, dozens of UMCP faculty were named among the world’s most highly cited researchers—placing it in the top 20 of U.S. institutions in an annual list compiled by Clarivate—and the university earned recognition as a Top-Producing Institution of Fulbright Students with 17 recipients in the 2024–25 academic year.