Fiscal Year 2026 was a record year for research awards at Georgia Tech, with total award dollars exceeding $1.53 billion. The graphic below shows award dollars (in millions) for both GTRI (Georgia Tech Research Institute) and RI (Resident Instruction). 

 

Annual Sponsored Awards

 

On the RI side, in Fiscal Year 2026, award dollars totaled approximately $491 million. This represented a 3.0% decline compared to the previous year but is in line with our five-year average of $490 million. In looking at RI awards:

  • Our largest sponsor continued to be the National Science Foundation (NSF), from whom we received a record $105 million in award funding. This represented an increase of over $16 million from the prior year and exceeded our 5-year NSF average by $10 million.

  • The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), which includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was our second biggest sponsor with an award total of over $85 million. This represented a $20 million increase over both the prior year and the 5-year average.

  • We continued to receive significant funding from our industry sponsors, who awarded us close to $66 million. 

  • Our Top 5 sponsor categories accounted for 74% of our total award funding, with NSF and DHHS alone combining to represent 39% of our award funding.

  • Direct funding from federal sponsors constituted 62% of total funding, which aligned with the previous year. Over the last five years, federal funding ranged between 61 – 65 percent of total direct funding. Note that the funds we receive from other universities are often federal flow-through dollars, but they are counted for this purpose as non-federal funds.

  • The biggest increases by award dollars came from DHHS, NSF, and Foundations/Societies. 

  • The biggest decreases by award dollars came from the US Department of Energy, Colleges/Universities, and the US Department of Commerce. 

  • Our strongest months (relative to FY25) were in September, December, and May, while our weakest months were in November, February, and March.

If you have any questions on the contents of this article, please contact Josh Rosenberg at josh.rosenberg@business.gatech.edu.