UCSD - University of California - San Diego

07/30/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/30/2026 03:47

UC San Diego’s FY26 Awards Reflect Larger Grants in a More Competitive Landscape

Published Date

July 30, 2026

Article Content

University of California San Diego's fiscal year 2026 awards totaled nearly $1.8 billion, including grants from federal, state, industry, non-profits and philanthropic research gifts. Though the tally represents one of the university's highest sponsored research totals to date, it reflects both momentum and caution in the research funding landscape.

Federal sources made up 62% of total FY26 award funding, a 19% increase over the previous year.

At the same time, the number of new awards declined to 1,746. This is down from 1,925 in FY25.

Together, those figures point to a mixed but encouraging picture.

"UC San Diego researchers continued to secure major investments in work that addresses some of the most urgent challenges facing society, from human health and national defense to energy and artificial intelligence," said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. "In a time of disruption and uncertainty, these awards and the outcomes they generate reflect why sustained public and private investment in university research remains so important to discovery, economic growth and America's long-term leadership in innovation."

Among the three largest awards of the year, each over $15 million, the sources include state, federal and private sponsors underscoring the broad appeal and impact of the university's research portfolio.

"The increase in award dollars suggests that UC San Diego researchers are winning larger, highly competitive awards, even as the total number of new awards has declined slightly," said Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Corinne Peek-Asa.

In reviewing the top 100 awards of the year, the awards span pediatrics, political science, ocean observations, computer science, nanoengineering and molecular biology.

"We remain committed to advocating for robust funding in key areas of national concern, including human health and longevity, national competitiveness, fusion energy and AI, while also sustaining the full range of research that defines our campus," Peek-Asa said. "This includes an expansive array of research from the arts and humanities to astrophysics. Breakthroughs depend on funding opportunities."

In a time of disruption and uncertainty, these awards and the outcomes they generate reflect why sustained public and private investment in university research remains so important to discovery, economic growth and America's long-term leadership in innovation. Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla
Center for Community Health

REFUGEE SUPPORT

UC San Diego's Refugee School Impact (RSI) program is funded by a California Department of Social Services grant that supports refugee and other eligible newcomer children, youth, and families across California. The current $19.7 million award (2025-2028) supports the Center for Community Health and its Refugee and Immigrant Health Unit as the regional administrator for California. Through this initiative, CCH coordinates a regional network that brings together regional leads, school districts and trusted community-based organizations to strengthen educational success, family engagement, and student well-being.

"Our role is to build the infrastructure that enables communities to succeed," said Blanca Meléndrez, Executive Director for the Center for Community Health at UC San Diego under the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute. "Our collaborative model helps ensure that support is community-driven, locally responsive, and coordinated across education and community systems."

BIOPRINTED LIVER

Liver failure is one of the most serious and deadly medical conditions, claiming thousands of lives each year as patients in the United States wait for a donor organ. A UC San Diego laboratory was funded up to $25.8 million by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for a research project that aims to change that by developing a fully functional, 3D bioprinted liver, "made-to-order" from a patient's own cells.

Led by 3D bioprinting expert Shaochen Chen, a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, the project brings together a multidisciplinary team of specialists across the UC San Diego campus in engineering, liver biology, liver imaging, liver surgery and artificial intelligence. This year the cooperative agreement received $18.3 million for its project titled, Large-scale, Intelligent, Vascularized, Engineered, Regenerative Liver.

OCEAN OBSERVATIONS

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego received a $15 million grant from the Fund for Science and Technology, a new private foundation funded by the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, to support the expansion of observational capabilities into parts of the ocean where data has historically been sparse or nonexistent. The resulting insights will help scientists understand how the ocean is changing and what those changes mean for the planet.

The grant supports the work of Scripps Director Emeritus Margaret Leinen in a broader analysis of eDNA - free-floating fragments of DNA shed by organisms into the environment - in understudied parts of the ocean to collect crucial baseline data on marine organisms, from tiny bacteria to massive whales. The grant also provides funding towards the expansion of the Deep Argo early-stage support for an emerging technology to study melting rates of Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica.

Deep Argo floats measure temperature, salinity and pressure up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), and have revolutionized oceanographers' ability to track changes in all ocean basins simultaneously. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

There were 5,591 active awards this year, including both new and continuing grants. Not all awards included funding and not all funds were expended during the past year. Topics and research areas run the gamut from Alzheimer's disease to zero-emissions projects.

UC San Diego has received a grant for nearly $2.5 million from the Pew Charitable Trust's Election Trust Initiative to launch the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections, a new nonpartisan research hub dedicated to strengthening public confidence in U.S. elections.

The Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections is co-directed by Thad Kousser, professor in the Department of Political Science in the School of Social Sciences and Lauren Prather, associate professor of political science in the School of Global Policy and Strategy. They are leading a nationwide effort to build sustained partnerships with election administrators, test new ways to increase transparency and share proven strategies with the goal of growing lasting trust across the political spectrum.

A five-year, $8 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) supports a study of the genetics of substance use disorders led by principal investigator Abraham Palmer, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for basic research in the School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry.

The grant received $7 million this past fiscal year to support a NIDA P30 Core Center of Excellence, which ultimately aims to understand why some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. This knowledge will be instrumental in developing more personalized and effective treatments to address the public health crisis posed by substance use disorders, which affect tens of millions of Americans at an enormous cost to the U.S. economy.

Read more news about: Behind Every Breakthrough

UCSD - University of California - San Diego published this content on July 30, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on July 30, 2026 at 09:47 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]