In a recent ranking of 4,633 higher education institutions nationwide, the University’s booming research efforts secured the school a spot in the top tier.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, a multi-level educational research and analysis classification framework for U.S. colleges and universities, placed the University among the 108 schools rated in the “Very High Research Activity” category. To be included, universities must meet strict minimum requirements for overall research funding, number of doctoral graduates and extent of research staff involvement.
In the 2005 ranking of the Carnegie classification system, the University was placed in the less prestigious “High Research Activity” category because it did not meet the minimum criteria for the top tier. University Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Richard Linton thinks the lack of medical, engineering and agriculture programs on campus made attracting major federal research dollars more difficult at the time, placing the paramount distinction out of the University’s reach.
This essentially second-place ranking at the time, Linton explained, also reflected the University’s small size when compared to larger research powerhouses like Stanford, MIT, Duke and a half dozen University of California schools.
Since then, the University has seen its income from competitive research funds coming from outside sources more than double, from $57.8 million in 2001 to $135.6 million in 2010. Much of the money is afforded by grants to University researchers from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education.
“Despite the overall constraints on UO faculty size and a relatively constant number of doctoral graduates over the past decade,” Linton said, “the UO’s sponsored research activity has grown remarkably.”
Linton credits the top tier ranking to the growth of research funding in the University’s life and physical science programs, as well as its well-renowned College of Education. In recent years, the growth rate of research funding funneled to campus has been one of the fastest among all Association of American Universities institutions, thanks in large part to efforts of faculty members.
“This is (a) tribute to the ability of our faculty to compete for funds nationally, despite an ever-escalating demand for such funds,” Linton said. “We have been successful in recruiting and retaining key faculty who are at the heart of UO’s research enterprise.”
University junior and cognitive psychology major Mora Reinka has experienced the benefits of increased grant support firsthand while working in the Brain and Behavior Laboratory at the University’s Child and Family Center. Reinka conducts research under the guidance of research scientist Kristina Racer and psychology professor Thomas Dishion, specializing in electroencephalography, the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced by the firing of neurons within the brain.
“I feel like people often overlook the UO’s research efforts,” Reinka said, “(so) I am glad that the University is making more of a national name for itself.”
Electroencephalography research, the lab worker said, demands a bank of highly advanced technology made possible through research grant appropriations. 
“Grants fund everything in this process,” Reinka said. “We use very expensive equipment, which is all supported with the grant money we receive. Grants allow the professors and researchers to do what they want and study what they want, and it lets students like me get a glimpse into that field.”
In the Pacific Northwest, the University now shares the top tier ranking with the University of Washington, as well as federally funded industrial revolution-era agriculture, science and engineering institutions, known as land-grant universities, such as Oregon State University and Washington State University.
Founded by steel industry magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center located at Stanford University.
 
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