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2024 ORI Annual Report

Executive Summary

The Office of Research Innovation (ORI) supports and nurtures NC State's research enterprise.

Last fiscal year, our university’s research enterprise continued to grow — reaching record highs in both awards and expenditures. Sponsored research awards totaled $517 million (see Figure 1), and research expenditures — $633 million — were also the highest on record (see Figure 2).

Figure 1. NC State research and development expenditures (based on NSF HERD Survey)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) remains our largest federal sponsor, with $66.4 million in expenditures. One of ORI’s strategic goals is to diversify NC State’s research funding portfolio; for example, to increase expenditures from Health and Human Services (HHS) In comparison to FY 2017-2018, expenditures from HHS have increased by 85%. Overall, federal expenditures are up by 11% and our research funding portfolio remains well-balanced.

Figure 2. Federal Expenditures by Agency (based on NSF HERD Survey data)

A leading research university, NC State is 6th in research expenditures among all public schools without medical schools. In business or industry-sponsored research expenditures, we rank 16th among all public schools and 6th among public schools without a medical school.

Our university also continues to excel in research innovation and commercialization. Among public universities without medical schools, we rank in the top 10 in all key metrics. Last year, NC State innovators and inventors submitted 214 disclosures, negotiated 155 commercialization agreements, and launched 15 startups and 21 new products based on NC State intellectual property.