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An R1 designation is presented to universities with $50 million in research and development expenditures, and annually award at least 70 doctoral degrees in any field.
Tyler Carrell/Indiana UniversityIndiana University Indianapolis recently received a Research 1 status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education — a designation only awarded to 187 premier research institutions in the United States.
The university is Indianapolis’ only R1 institution.
“It’s just an affirmation of the good work that people on this campus have been doing without necessarily expecting a reward,” Latha Ramchand, IU Indianapolis’ Chancellor.
An R1 designation is presented to universities with $50 million in research and development expenditures and annually award at least 70 doctoral degrees, as determined by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
The announcement means both IU Indianapolis and IU Bloomington are classified with the R1 designation — making the higher education institution one of a handful across the country that have multiple R1 campuses. Only two other Indiana institutions have achieved this research status — Purdue University and University of Notre Dame.
The data that was used to determine the school’s status was based on information collected when the campus was still Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. But Ramchand said the institutions would have received the designation even without data from Purdue University since IU Indianapolis’ research has grown by 47% between 2018 and 2023. IU Indianapolis had more than $76.8 million in research expenditures and awarded 88 doctoral degrees in 2023, the most recent year reviewed, according to a press release.
“The R1 designation for IU Indianapolis, reflecting the quality of the research on the campus, is just the beginning,” said Jay Hess, dean of the IU School of Medicine, in a press release. “We look forward to accelerating the pace of discoveries and more translation of those discoveries to improve lives here in Indiana and far beyond.”
IU Indianapolis recently opened two Bio Science institutes and are constructing a 50,000 square foot building to expand the Science Instructional and Research Lab, which will be completed in 2027.
Ramchand said the recognition will help the university attract more students and faculty as the school continues to grow.
“I think 10 years from now, we will all look at this place and say, ‘That's where this invention began, the curiosity of researchers and students who worked on a question for which there was no easy answer, and we have it now,’” Rachmand said.
Contact WFYI’s Health Reporter Elizabeth Gabriel at egabriel@wfyi.org
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