The University of California, Davis, once again exceeded $1 billion in new external research awards in the fiscal year 2023-24, surpassing the amount received in the previous year by $33 million. The funding, which totaled $1.039 billion, will enable scientific discoveries and innovations addressing a wide range of global needs.    

“For the third consecutive year, UC Davis has set the bar high for research funding,” said Chancellor Gary S. May. “This investment will empower our university to continue transformative research confronting the world’s most persistent challenges from climate change to child welfare, generating unprecedented opportunities for individuals both here in California and across the globe."

Vice Chancellor for Research Simon Atkinson added, “UC Davis’ success in attaining this level of funding and delivering global impact is a testament to the broad ingenuity and passion of our faculty, researchers and staff throughout the university.”

The federal government continued to be the largest provider of funding at $441 million. The second leading source was the state of California at $237 million, up by $76 million. Funding from industry made up the third highest source, totaling $95 million. 

Among the colleges and schools, the top three recipients were the School of Medicine ($400 million), the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences ($169 million) and the College of Engineering ($118 million). 

The largest single award, $52.39 million went to Alison Book, executive director of UC Davis Human Services, for a program to fortify the future of the child welfare workforce throughout California (described further below).  The award came from the California Department of Social Services, with funding from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families.

Research at UC Davis also produces innovations that become the foundation for tomorrow’s products, services and businesses. Last fiscal year, researchers generated 140 records of invention, submitted 208 patent applications and secured 109 patents and plant certificates.

To learn more about the impact of UC Davis research and innovation, view our Annual Research Impact Report.

Notable awards by college and school

College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Building resilient and equitable urban stream corridors 
Natural hazards, socio-economic wellbeing and ecological functions all intertwine in California’s urban stream corridors, as these pathways are heavily relied on for flood and pollution control, recreation, ecosystem services, education and residency. Led by Professor Gregory Pasternack, a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary team will use a combination of data collection in local communities and their streams, model-predicted future climate condition maps, remote sensing and spatial analysis to understand landscape patterns that amplify risks and identify locations where nature-based solutions can be most effective. The project is funded by the University of California Office of the President.  

College of Biological Sciences

Ecology shaping cognition: An exploration with wild bees 
Felicity Muth, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, is leading a research project focused on understanding how environments shape cognition in bumblebees and other bee species. As part of the National Geographic Society's Wildlife Intelligence Project, the project will investigate cognitive differences between queen and forager bumblebees, as well as the impact of dietary generalism on bees' cognitive abilities. Muth’s team will study bees in natural environments to determine how they learn and solve problems while foraging, on public land in Nevada and California, contributing to a broader understanding of animal behavior and cognition in the wild.

College of Engineering

Developing high-resolution imaging capabilities for advancing bio-informed flight research 
Christina Harvey, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis and Michelle Hawkins, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and director of the California Raptor Center, are launching the bird flight research center with funding from the Department of Defense. The new center will utilize motion capture and photogrammetry — which uses photography to determine the distance between objects — technologies to image birds in flight and create 3D models of the wing shapes to inform the design and capabilities of the next generation of uncrewed aerial systems. The center will be the first of its kind in the country. Harvey has been studying how bird flight can be used to improve aircraft design, and was awarded the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation last year. 

College of Letters and Science

Understanding gender-based differences in responses to social stress 
Stress-related mental illnesses are more common in women than men, and these differences arise after puberty when hormones shape brain development. Surprisingly little is known about how adolescent brain development affects behavior. Led by Brian Trainor, a professor in the Department of Psychology, the team will examine how sexual differentiation during puberty shapes stress-sensitive neural circuits that control social behavior. A team of scientists has found that testosterone is the key hormone that drives differences in responses to social stress in male and female mice. Funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the team will test the hypothesis that activation of the androgen receptor during puberty alters gene expression in the brain to permanently program neural circuits of social behavior to be less sensitive to social stress. 

Continuing and Professional Education

Improving quality of child welfare services 
The California Title IV-E education program provides professional education and monetary support to undergraduate and graduate social work students who intend to pursue or continue a career in the field of public child welfare. Through funding awarded by the California Department of Social Services, a team led by Alison Book, principal investigator and executive director of Human Services at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, will partner with UCLA to administer the Title IV-E program and its sub-awards at California’s 20 universities with social work programs. The new partnership will provide more opportunities to fortify the professional preparedness that participating students receive, ultimately strengthening the quality of child welfare services provided to families throughout the state.

Graduate School of Management

Enhancing open-source software use for optimization 
Professor and Associate Dean David Woodruff is working with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to enhance open-source software used for optimization when the input data are uncertain. Although the enhancements are general, one target is to be able to optimize large economic models of electricity generation and delivery infrastructure. Another target is to be able to optimize electric grid planning, management and operation. This work also involves collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 

School of Education

Creating professional learning opportunities for bilingual teachers and caregivers to teach English language learners 
Dual language education is an extremely effective way to teach students identified as English language learners, but there are not enough qualified, credentialed bilingual teachers to meet the rising need for bilingual education across the country. A team led by Associate Professor of Teaching in Education Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica is developing and implementing workshops in Spanish for bilingual teachers and caregivers of English language learners in California and New Mexico, states which have among the highest number of K-8 students in the country who are identified as English language learners. The workshops will provide a professional learning environment in Spanish so that participating teachers and caregivers can gain and refine the skills they need to teach in K-8 dual language classrooms. The project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition.

School of Law

Providing sustainable groundwater management for underrepresented communities 
The Small Farmer Clinic, an extension of the law school’s Aoki Water Justice Clinic will provide legal assistance to family farmers regulated by California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The clinic was created through a Water Foundation grant that UC Davis Law Senior Assistant Dean for Administration Brett Burns, Aoki Water Justice Clinic Director Rob Mullaney and Professor and Director of Clinical Legal Education Gabriel “Jack” Chin were instrumental in securing. David Sandino is the new director of the clinic.

School of Medicine

Preparing Californians for public health emergencies 
The UC Davis School of Medicine Department of Public Health Sciences assists with providing qualified personnel to aid the Emergency Preparedness Office and other California Department of Public Health programs with planning and activities to prepare Californians for public health emergencies. This includes drills and exercise scenarios, planning for the strategic national stockpile, crisis response, statewide disaster planning, and developing publications and communications to support the California Department of Public Health programs. The project is led by Bradley Pollock, chair and distinguished professor of the Department of Public Health Sciences and funded by the California Department of Public Health. 

School of Nursing

Funding to help counter national downward trend of graduate student enrollment in nursing
Enrollment in Doctor of Philosophy nursing programs across the nation is down more than 3% in the last year, posing a threat to meeting the nation’s health care needs, according to a survey from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. New investment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation aims to reverse that downward trend. It offers to lower the cost for students in the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership program at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. Led by Dean Stephen Cavanagh, the funding will provide substantial tuition packages for up to five years of full-time study, and also cover travel for conference presentations, start-up awards, research-related expenses and dissertation assistance. 

School of Veterinary Medicine

Combating Rift Valley fever  
This One Health project will continue the development of DDVax, a vaccine candidate for Rift Valley fever relevant for people and livestock. This high-consequence pathogen is found throughout Africa and parts of the Middle East and the risk of introduction into Europe, Asia, and the Americas is very high. The project, led by Brian Bird, director of the One Health Institute Laboratory and professor of emerging and zoonotic diseases, will enable a novel human vaccine trial against Rift Valley fever virus in Africa. Funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the European Union’s Horizon Europe program, the project aims to work with partners in African countries affected by the virus to assess the safety and immune response of the vaccine in people most at risk. 

Office of Research, interdisciplinary research awards

Interdisciplinary research units within the Office of Research continue to attract significant funding by bringing experts together from different fields of study. These joint efforts aim to address complex, large-scale challenges that require expertise from many perspectives. Notable examples include:

Growing GRASS and climate-smart value-added US commodity markets

Led by Patrick Huber, director of the Center for Conservation Informatics in the Institute of the Environment and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Sustainable Business Institute, Inc., the project aims to define successful regenerative practices and to quantify greenhouse gas sequestration while bringing beef and bison byproducts into sustainable supply chains.

Remote monitoring for equity in advancing control of hypertension (REACH) 

Nearly 116 million Americans have hypertension, the most common cause of avoidable death and disability in the U.S. It is of particular importance to conduct studies of home blood pressure monitoring among communities most impacted by hypertension, given that Black and Latino communities, those with low income, and those with limited proficiency in English are more likely to be diagnosed with hypertension or have uncontrolled hypertension. Led by Courtney Lyles, director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research and professor in the UC Davis School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences, the REACH project will test patient support for home blood pressure monitoring, with the goal of varying clinical pharmacist outreach and support. REACH is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and 540 patients will be enrolled. The project is in partnership with UC San Francisco.  

Measuring charging infrastructure reliability in California 

The reliability of the public charging infrastructure in California is critical to facilitating the adoption and utilization of electric vehicles in order to meet the state’s zero-emission vehicle sales and emissions reductions goals. Led by Gil Tal, director of the STEPS+ and EV Research Center at the Institute of Transportation Studies, this project aims to investigate and understand the difference in reliability between two sources: the EV service provider and the customer, the cause of any reliability or charging failures, and provide potential solutions for providers to maximize the reliability of chargers. This project will be focused on Direct Current Fast Chargers in California and will separately explore the charging reliability experience in different communities including urban, rural, low-income and disadvantaged communities. The project is funded by the California Energy Commission. 

Reports are based on the principal investigator’s home school or college. Where funds are awarded up-front to cover several years, the money is counted in the first year the award was received. Incrementally funded awards are counted as authorized in each year. Funding amounts reflect a correction in the attribution of a $3 million award to the School of Nursing that was previously assigned to the School of Medicine.