Oregon State University research enterprise tops $400M for second straight year

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Despite a federal funding landscape that underwent rapid change, Oregon State University eclipsed the $400 million mark in research expenditures for the second consecutive year in fiscal year 2025 while advancing knowledge in areas ranging from energy solutions and precision medicine to environmental resilience, critical minerals, robotics and artificial intelligence.

“As a modern land-grant university with a long history of building relationships and solving problems, Oregon State leads the pursuit of scholarship that improves lives in meaningful ways,” said Jayathi Murthy, president of Oregon State. “OSU researchers continue to rise to the occasion and meet every challenge head-on, making the world safer, healthier and more prosperous.”

Released today, the OSU Division of Research and Innovation’s annual report for FY25 shows $417 million in research expenditures – a key measure of research productivity, according to Irem Tumer, OSU vice-president for research and innovation. OSU faculty celebrated many milestone achievements in the fiscal year that ended June 30, she noted, including:

• Converting captured carbon dioxide into an energy source.
• A new computer chip that helps AI use less power.
• Using therapeutic nanoparticles to treat neurological disorders.
• Making coastal communities more safe from storms.

“Our research enterprise uses resilience and collaboration to propel discovery and elevate communities in our state, nation and world,” Tumer said. “We rely on federal funding to do much of our work, and the breadth of our expertise positions us well to keep moving the needle even when the priorities of our federal partners change.”

The report notes that OSU’s research enterprise has an annual economic impact of nearly $800 million, which manifests itself in multiple ways including federally supported leadership roles in driving the microfluidics industry, growing a semiconductor ecosystem and supporting the timber economy.

Additionally, construction is now complete on OSU’s new PacWave facility; it’s the first U.S. grid-connected wave energy test site, and energy companies will be able to test wave energy converters, linked by subsea cables to a shore-based power facility.

Also, the university’s new Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex, a three-story, 143,000 square-foot structure, is scheduled to open in 2026. The complex, funded in part by $50 million gifts from alumni couple Jen-Hsun and Lori Mills Huang and the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation, is designed to be a home for team-based transdisciplinary research and teaching. It will house a powerful supercomputer, and much of the work taking place in the complex will focus on AI, resilient communities, clean water, robotics and intelligent systems.

After surpassing $400 million the past two years, Oregon State’s research awards were $343.6 million in FY25. Awards from federal agencies were $294.7 million this year, down from $370 million.

“Some of that is attributable to some of our larger awards ending, and some of that is because of reductions in federal research awards nationwide during the second half of our fiscal year,” Tumer said. “Less money coming in always presents certain challenges, but we’re looking ahead to more stability, and much more discovery, in the months and years ahead.”