External Sponsored Funding for Iowa State Research Surpasses $300 Million for Third Straight Year

In a year of rapidly evolving federal priorities, Iowa State researchers once again brought in more than $300 million in funding in FY25, marking the third year in a row. These funds support research that fuels discoveries and innovations that make a difference for Iowans, the nation, and the world.

The 2025 fiscal year, that closed June 30, was quite atypical for Iowa State University researchers. Collectively, they experienced the exhilarating highs of new major awards to support their research and discovery as well as the feelings of anxiety brought about by a changing federal funding landscape with rapidly evolving priorities.

Iowa State topped $300 million in external research funding for the third consecutive year, despite the uncertainty of a rapidly evolving federal funding landscape over the past six months. The $329.9 million received in FY25 is second only to the record-setting $346.2 million received in FY24.

Research accounted for a substantial portion of the $549.3 in total external funding the university attracted for FY25, an increase of $4.7 million or 0.9%, compared to the $544.6 million received in FY24. In addition to research, external funding supports initiatives across campus, including academic support, scholarships, and facility improvements. The funding can include contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements from federal, state and local governments, as well as from individuals, corporations, nonprofits and other universities. While external funding supports research operating expenses, it does not support operating expenses related to the university’s educational mission.

FY25’s $329.9 million in research funding was driven by highs from the:

• U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – Iowa State and its partner Ames National Laboratory received $125.2 million in funding in FY25, up $13.3 million or 11.8% compared to the previous highwater mark of $111.9 million in FY24. While the bulk of these funds were allocated for Ames Lab – including the Critical Materials Innovation Hub housed there – DOE awarded $11.3 million for Iowa State-specific research.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) – Iowa State received an institutional record $45.3 million in NSF awards in FY25 to support both basic research, driven by curiosity and discovery, and solutions-oriented research to deliver advancements for the American people.

• U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) – the university received $10.1 million in USDOT research awards in FY25, topping the previous high of $9.2 million in FY21. The funds support projects – conducted by the Institute for Transportation (InTrans) and other units and departments at Iowa State – that are focused on improving safety, efficiency, and innovation across various modes of transportation.

On the other side of the coin, the evolving landscape and changing priorities within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) resulted in Iowa State receiving just $24.5 million in agency research funding in FY25. This is the lowest amount the university has received over the past five fiscal years, and $24.4 million or 49.8% below FY24’s landmark total. From January through May of 2025, Iowa State received only capacity research funding*; no new competitive research grants were awarded.

(*Note: The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture – NIFA – supports the land-grant university mission by providing several types of non-competitive funds, known as capacity funds, that are matched at state or local levels. The amounts allocated to each state depend on variables such as rural population, farm population, forest acreage, and poverty rates.)

“Every July I am reminded it’s the anniversary month of the Morrill Act becoming law in 1862. The Morrill Act created the land-grant university system that has not only survived but thrived in the face of challenges and tempests that have included the Civil War, two World Wars, two global pandemics and countless federal administration changes and political upheavals,” said Iowa State Vice President for Research, Peter Dorhout.

“Over the past six months, the federal research funding landscape evolved more rapidly – and more seismically – than most of us could have imagined. But the faculty, graduate students, and staff who comprise our Iowa State research community rose to meet the moment,” Dorhout added. “Their resolve, creativity, grit, and imagination have been critical in helping us continue to achieve our strategic aspirations of being the most student-centric leading research university and a trusted partner for proactive and innovative solutions.”

The impact of a new research project isn’t measured by the dollar amount of its award. Any project – large or small – can deliver an outsized impact if it reflects the Iowa State research vision of fostering human creativity, fueling innovation, and forging new frontiers that enable our communities, partners and stakeholders to flourish.

Here are four notable new projects that received FY25 funding that embody this vision . . .

• In August 2024, Genetics professor Hongqing Guo, received a five-year, $1.8 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant, will support Guo’s studies around a powerful plant gene called Feronia, which helps plants balance growth and survival under stress. This gene plays a key role in how plants respond to threats like drought or disease, but also affects many other functions, making it tricky to study. To better understand Feronia, Guo’s team uses advanced tools like single-cell RNA sequencing and CRISPR to examine its role in specific plant cells. Their goal is to help develop crops that stay productive even in challenging conditions.

• Group therapeutic singing (GTS) has been shown to improve voice, breathing, swallowing, motor symptoms, and quality of life for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, rural residents often lack access to in-person sessions. In May 2025, the American Music Therapy Association awarded Kinesiology associate professor, Elizabeth Stegemoller, $20,000 to conduct a pilot study to test the feasibility of delivering GTS virtually. Stegemoller’s team will first refine the virtual program with participants near Iowa State, then expand to rural areas in partnership with local Extension offices, marking the first study of its kind to evaluate virtual GTS for rural PD communities.

• Doug Jacobson is the Sunil & Sujata Gaitonde Professorship in Cybersecurity and director of Iowa State’s Center for Cybersecurity Innovation and Outreach. For more than 20 years, the university has helped address the national shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. In January 2025, Jacobson and his team received an initial award of nearly $1.4 million on a five-year NSF project with an estimated award total of more than $3.7 million. Building on four previous NSF grants, this new project will support 24 students across four cohorts in the Cyber Security M.S. program – primarily undergraduates from Iowa State’s B.S. in Cyber Security Engineering. The combined degrees offer deep, hands-on training to protect critical infrastructure. Each student will complete a faculty-mentored research project and develop leadership and teamwork skills, preparing them to thrive in high-demand cybersecurity roles.

• Rural electric utilities face growing challenges in delivering reliable power, especially as more frequent extreme weather events increase the risk of prolonged outages. In September 2024, Alice Alipour, Associate Professor and Thomas M. Murray Faculty Fellow in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, received $1.5 million from NSF to support a three-year project that aims to create a digital infrastructure to help rural utilities better plan for, withstand and recover from natural disasters. Other members of the Iowa State team – whose project also received university strategic plan seed funding through the OVPR Research and Innovation Roundtable program – include: Behrouz Shafei, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering; Ian Dobson, Electrical and Computer Engineering; William Gallus, Earth Atmosphere, and Climate; and Samuel Mindes, Rural Sociology and Extension and Outreach.

“From advancing the resiliency of crops to strengthening cybersecurity and power systems to improving rural health, the work of Drs. Guo, Stegemoller, Jacobson, Alipour, and their many colleagues, underscores the real-world impact of Iowa State research,” Dorhout said. “I am pleased and proud of the creative ways our researchers and scholars overcome the myriad challenges that have been placed in their paths. Year after year, they prove to be more than experts – they are visionaries driven by curiosity, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to creating a better world through innovation.”

Iowa State University FY25 Federal Research Funding Overview

Despite the evolving landscape, Iowa State established a new benchmark for federal research funding in the 2025 fiscal year. The $240.1 million received exceeded the previous record of $236.3 million – set in FY24 – by $3.8 million or 1.6%. This is the fourth consecutive year that Iowa State has established new records for federal research funding.

More details are available in this FY25 federal research funding overview.

Iowa State University FY25 Non-Federal Research Funding Overview

Iowa State’s nearly $110 million in non-federal research funding in the 2024 fiscal year was the largest amount the university had ever received by a wide margin. The $89.8 million in non-federal funding the institution received in FY25 is more consistent with the amounts received in three of the other four previous fiscal years.

More details are available in this FY25 non-federal research funding overview.