Six Va. schools among top research universities

Six Virginia schools made the National Science Foundation's rankings of the top 200 research universities in the nation.

Virginia Tech ranked 46th in the 2008 list based on research and development expenditures. Tech reported expenditures of about $373.28 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008.

Virginia Commonwealth University was ranked 108th. It reported $148.65 million in expenditures, an 11 percent increase.

The rankings and expenditures of other Virginia schools are:

• 70. University of Virginia, $257.65 million

• 151. George Mason University, $72.54 million

• 156. Old Dominion University, $66.53 million

• 169. College of William and Mary, $55.09 million

The top research institute in the country is Johns Hopkins University at $1.68 billion.

The report found that the federal government remained the largest source of academic research and development funding. Federally funded academic research and development expenditures for fiscal 2008 totaled $31.2 billion.

-- Karin Kapsidelis