As a research intensive Department, the USC Department of Medicine has long been, and remains, committed to an aggressive basic science and clinical research mission. Currently, faculty members in the Department hold research grants with annual expenditures approximating $44.0 million, of which $36.5 million are NIH-sponsored. These annual grant expenditures represent about 30% of the total funded research activities for the entire Keck School of Medicine. While the Department currently ranks 27th in the nation in NIH-funded research, we rank first in the nation in average dollars per funded investigator ($660,000). Strategically, the Department is implementing steps to move into the top 20 in NIH grant funding among departments of medicine in the United States, which will require at least a 30% increase in our total NIH funding from $39 million to $50 million, an increase of about $11 million (above the prevailing NIH funding inflation rate) and, depending on the mix of bench and patient oriented research, a doubling of our funded researchers.

An important indicator of future research funding is the number of proposal submissions. As noted in the above table, the annual number of grant requests submitted by Department faculty have increased substantially over the last decade.

It is evident that our faculty have displayed considerable enterprise and initiative in establishing this record, especially in light of current campus-wide impediments to research growth such as increased clinical responsibilities, scarce research space and limited research infrastructure. In addition to their own hands-on research, our faculty play key roles as members and chairs of KSOM research committees, tasked to recommend and guide improvements to the KSOM research infrastructure. We are particularly proud of our successful record of retaining funded investigators, a circumstance that provides a sound foundation for our future growth. Given that our existing research-funded faculty are near capacity, substantive growth in our research portfolio will be fueled, primarily, through research workforce expansion. Now that we are in a reasonably stable period with a manageable need for growth in clinical workforce, we have started directing identifiable available resources to research expansion. The Keck School of Medicine has embarked on an ambitious research building program. The bulk of the Department's research is targeted for the next building to be developed, currently called Research Building 3. We look forward to the successful conclusion of fund raising and construction endeavors, and the related new research buildings and core facilities, so that we can accelerate our recruitment of additional research oriented faculty and fully leverage our unique resources.