UCI reports school-record $500 million funding from grants and giving
UC Irvine officials announced Wednesday that the university raised a UCI record half a billion dollars in research and philanthropic funding during the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The school’s Office of Research recorded $395 million in grants and contracts, while University Advancement reported $132.5 million in gifts, according to a news release.
“As UCI completes its 50th-anniversary celebration and enacts an ambitious strategic plan for unprecedented growth and engagement, this record support signifies our rapid ascent in the ranks of the finest research institutions,” UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement. “The burgeoning culture of philanthropy is central to achieving our bold ambitions and to igniting and expanding the contributions that UCI can bring to our region and to the world.”
The contributions — which came from foundations, individual donors and state and federal agencies — topped the totals from 2014-15, when UCI collected $65.5 million from fundraising and $293 million from research grants and contracts.
Support in fiscal 2015-16 included a commitment of $40 million — the largest private donation in UCI history — from the William and Sue Gross Family Foundation to establish a nursing school and a $550,000 contribution from Newport Beach class-action attorney Richard Bridgford and litigation funder Bentham IMF for a new Civil Justice Research Institute, which is scheduled to open at the UCI School of Law this fall.
Many contributions were dedicated to health, such as $17 million from pharmaceutical companies to UC Irvine Health physician Sai-Hong Ignatius Ou to run clinical trials for lung cancer treatments.
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