Virginia Tech has surpassed its research spending target and is aiming for a new one, despite a federal executive branch philosophy seemingly centered on slashing funds to university research nationwide.
In a news release this week, the university cited a National Science Foundation study that shows Virginia Tech beat its 2023 $410 million target for what it calls “externally sponsored research expenditures” — competitive funding from federal agencies and other sources.
The foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey, which tracks such activity at the country’s universities, says that Virginia Tech wound up with $419 million in that fiscal year. The university has a new goal — $600 million in research spending for fiscal year 2029 — and is on track to meet it, according to the news release.
About 75% of the school’s research funding comes from federal sources, and as of 2025, that money has appeared to be in jeopardy. The Trump administration has cut funding across the board for university research, most notably for medical research via the National Institutes of Health, which has become a federal appeals court issue. The loss of funding would impact the Roanoke-based Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, which received 10% of the university’s funding from outside sources.
Virginia Tech has seen grants valued at $54.5 million terminated as of June, according to information provided by the university. Research projects across the university system had already spent $20.2 million of that money from multiyear grants, which means the funding loss was $34.3 million, according to Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski.
About 30 offices and departments are affected.
It creates a great challenge going forward, said Daniel Sui, the university’s senior vice president for research and innovation. Grant writers will work to get more money from state government, private industry, philanthropy, private foundations and donors, Sui said in a Thursday interview.
Even that might not make up the difference in what he calls an “increasingly unpredictable” federal funding environment.
“Not all of those other sources combined could fill the gap left from federal funding,” Sui said. “We don’t know how big the federal funding cap will be. Hopefully we will know soon.”
He cited the NIH case as an example. That agency proposed deep cuts to research institutes for so-called facilities and administration costs, such as laboratory maintenance, high-speed data processing, data storage and security, lab equipment, radiation safety, hazardous waste disposal and support staff for administrative and regulatory compliance work.
Multiple states’ attorneys general and lawyers for academic groups received a temporary restraining order against the NIH and its overseer agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH has appealed that restraining order, in a case still pending in a Massachusetts federal court.
Meanwhile, Congress has proposed higher funding than President Donald Trump’s budget request for $27.9 billion to the NIH — a 40% decrease from last fiscal year. The House of Representatives and Senate each have about $48 billion earmarked for the institutes.
“I must say that all these three different branches, their perspective is quite different,” Sui said. “It will be interesting to see how we will actually land.”
Virginia Tech is not alone among those interested. The cuts are affecting university-level research nationwide, creating an even more competitive environment for funding.
“We need to be more aggressive in terms of fundraising from all the other non-federal funding sources,” Sui said.
One strategy will be to lobby state lawmakers and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger to invest more, he said. The university has expanded its industry partnerships, as well.
“We’re talking to them about … how Virginia Tech will benefit their business down the road.”
The College of Engineering receives the lion’s share of outside funding to the university, at 33%, followed by the College of Science with 13% and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at 12%. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the Virginia Tech National Security Institute receive 9% and 7%, respectively. The money goes toward research, instruction and outreach, according to the university.
Data from fiscal year 2026’s first quarter, which began July 1, shows a slight downtick in awards granted from all outside sources — $166.8 million, versus $182 million in fiscal year 2025 and $243.3 million in 2024.
Grant proposals have increased to all-time highs, reaching almost $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2025 and $777 million in the first quarter of 2026, according to the university.
Sui told the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors this week that the increase may reflect researchers’ responses to tighter funding competition.
“If proposal activity continues rising while funding availability contracts, we could see lower success rates and researcher fatigue,” Sui said in the news release.
“I think moving forward, that‘s the new reality we are in,” he said Thursday. “Virginia Tech is a resilient institution. We have weathered the storm before.”
That storm, the global COVID-19 pandemic, had little in common with what he called unprecedented federal budget uncertainty.
Still, he said: “I am cautiously optimistic.”