the research institute of america

LMS 101: Rethinking Your Approach To Employee Training

• For training to work, there needs to be an association between the training itself and the reason for the training.
• e-learning boosts retention rates by 25 to 60 percent, compared to retention rates of 8 to 10 percent with traditional training.
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Employers who understand that training is a vital contributor to organizational growth are continuously challenged to deliver training that is practical for the company and beneficial to employees. Consequently, there is a need for employers to rethink how knowledge is delivered, accessed and shared across the organization. Here are six factors to consider.

• Training Should Align with a Direct Business Need

Training will not solve job performance problems if the real issue lies elsewhere – such as employee motivation, compensation systems or job design. For training to work, there needs to be an association between the training itself and the reason for the training.

Learn more about how to propel your business growth through employee learning.

For example, a banking sales representative may have superb selling skills but poor product knowledge. Through appropriate product knowledge training, he or she may achieve a good balance of product knowledge and selling skills.

Therefore, it is important to perform a detailed analysis of the issue before leveraging training as the solution.

• Organizations Are Progressively Adopting Online Training

Classroom-based (traditional) training can be impractical and expensive for employers to implement. Among other things, there are instructor costs, venue costs and course material costs to consider with traditional training. For these reasons, more and more employers are turning to e-learning (online learning) solutions.

Workflow Friendly

According to a study by Brandon Hall Group, it typically takes employees 40 to 60 percent less time to study a particular material via e-learning than in a traditional classroom setting. This is due to employees being able to access training online whenever they need it, without interrupting their workflow.

Boosts Retention

The Research Institute of America concluded that e-learning boosts retention rates by 25 to 60 percent, compared to retention rates of 8 to 10 percent with traditional training. This is because e-learning employees have more control over the learning process and are able to revisit training as needed.

The University of the Potomac stated that 67 percent of college instructors believe online media – such as blogs, video and podcasts – are necessary teaching tools.

• On-Demand and Mobile Learning is Growing

On-demand training does not include an instructor. Instead, employees access training on their own, any time, from any device with an internet connection – such as a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet. According to Chief Learning Officer magazine, most organizations (58 percent) prefer to use on-demand learning for compliance training, compared to 12 percent who prefer in-person, instructor-led training. In addition, one out of three chief learning officers use mobile devices to deliver compliance training.

Globally, the mobile learning market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of over 36 percent from 2015 to 2020 – and in 2014, the U.S. remained the leading purchaser of mobile learning technology.

• Blended Training May Be More Fitting

Depending on your industry and employees’ roles, online training alone may not be sufficient. In this case, a blended approach, which combines traditional face-to-face learning with e-learning , may be ideal. According to a study published by the Journal of Medical Internet Research, blended learning for health professionals appears to be more effective than (or at least as effective as) traditional instruction.

• Modern Learners are Visual with Short Attention Spans

Learners today tend to have packed schedules, short attention spans and an attachment to their mobile device. The majority are also visual learners. Studies estimate that visual learners make up approximately 65 percent of the U.S. population. These pupils need to see what they are absorbing, preferring bite-sized training – such as videos requiring no more than two to five minutes each – over lengthy training sessions.

• Company-Wide Information Efficiently Disseminated

Dispersing information to employees across different departments and locations via the traditional training method can be time consuming and financially strenuous. A more feasible option may be an e-learning platform, such as a learning management system , capable of quickly delivering company-wide information to relevant employees, thereby keeping them on the same page while lowering training costs.

This article originally was posted on Paycom.com . For more information about how to propel your business growth through employee learning, download this free white paper: Learning Management Systems: Fueling Employee Knowledge and Propelling Business Growth . Or, to learn more about how Paycom’s HR technology can help your business grow, contact us today.

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Research!America’s History

Launching an advocacy movement for research for health.

In the late 1980s, Research!America’s founders came together to address the widening gap between the potential of biomedical research and the support it was then garnering from the American public and its elected representatives. Leaders from university and independent research institutions, industry, patient organizations, and scientific societies, advised by elected and appointed officials and visionary advocates, formed the Research!America alliance. The wisdom of the founders has stood the test of time, as illustrated by 1989 statements that continue to ring true today:

“Mission Statement : To gain public awareness of the benefits to humankind of medical research and to build a strong base of citizen support for more research into cure, treatment and prevention of physical and mental disorders.”

“Case Statement: Preoccupations by Congress and the administration with deficit reduction and competition for appropriations in a resource-scarce environment have resulted in woeful underfunding of government agencies involved in medical research.”

“Plan of Action: To achieve its goal of making medical research a national priority of the highest order, Research!America must mobilize public opinion and develop strategies that succeed in getting citizens sufficiently aroused to make their views known to Congress and The White House.”

Key Milestones

Research!America officially launches with former Sen. Lowell Weicker as president, CEO and key spokesperson. Edwin C. “Jack” Whitehead, founder of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, is the founding board chair. Other founding Board members: Theodore Cooper, MD, chairman and CEO of Upjohn Co. and his associate Ed Greissing, vice president of government affairs; renowned medical research advocate Mary W. Lasker; Robert Dresing, president and CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; former Speaker of the House Thomas O’Neill; Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, MD; Raymond Sackler, MD, president of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation, Inc.; Terry Lierman, president of Capitol Associates, Inc.; John Donnelly, VP of public affairs at The National Multiple Sclerosis Society and later VP of public affairs at Research!America; Carol Scheman, director of federal relations at the Association of American Universities; Virginia Weldon, VP for public policy at Monsanto; Willa Hsueh, MD, senior member of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute; Michael Goldberg, PhD, executive director of The American Society for Microbiology; former Utah Senate Minority Leader Patricia Jones; William R. Hendee, PhD, VP of science and technology for the American Medical Association; and William Anlyan, MD, chancellor of Duke University, who would later become chair of the Research!America Board of Directors.

Research!America Founding Supporters

• AdvaMed (Advanced Medical Technology Association)
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
• Alliance for Aging Research
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
• American Dental Education Association
• American Diabetes Association
• American Geriatrics Society
• American Medical Association
• The American Physiological Society
• American Psychiatric Association
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• The American Society for Microbiology
• Association of Independent Research Institutes
• Baylor College of Medicine
• Beckman Coulter
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• Case Western Reserve University
• Children's Research Institute at Children's National Medical Center
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Columbia University
• David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (formerly University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine)
• Duke University Medical Center
• Emory University School of Medicine
• Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)
• The Forsyth Institute
• Georgetown University Medical Center
• Harvard Medical School
• Hereditary Disease Foundation
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• International & American Association for Dental Research
• Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Johnson & Johnson
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Merck & Co., Inc.
• Morehouse School of Medicine
• National Alopecia Areata Foundation
• National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
• New York University
• Novartis International
• Partners Healthcare System, Inc.
• Purdue University
• Society for Neuroscience
• Society for Pediatric Research
• University of Alabama, School of Medicine
• University of California, San Diego School of Medicine/Health Sciences
• The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
• University of Connecticut Health Center
• University of Louisville
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
• University of Miami
• University of North Carolina School of Medicine
• University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
• The University of Toledo Medical Center (formerly the Medical College of Ohio)
• University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• The George Washington University
• Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
• Weill Cornell Medical College
• Yale University School of Medicine

Mary Woolley, formerly CEO of the Medical Research Institute of San Francisco and president of the Association of Independent Research Institutes (AIRI), is named president and CEO of Research!America. The alliance makes its first call for doubling the NIH budget.

Founder Edwin C. “Jack” Whitehead dies. Duke University Chancellor William Anlyan, MD, is elected board chair. Research!America releases first national public opinion poll conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., now Harris Interactive. Poll data indicates that 91% of Americans support increased funding for medical research. The first state poll (Maryland) is released at a press conference in Annapolis that launched a statewide public awareness campaign to galvanize the public and scientific community into an active advocacy force for medical research.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) asks Research!America to present national public opinion poll data to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. The second statewide public awareness campaign is launched in North Carolina. Research!America Honorary Director and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop partners with Research!America to create a national public service announcement campaign calling for an increase in medical research funding.

A third statewide public awareness campaign is launched in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut; poll data confirm strong support for research in tri-state area.

Research!America holds first annual National Health Research Forum, featuring, among others, former senator and presidential candidate Paul Tsongas (D-MA). In Congress, an amendment by Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR) blocks a 10% cut of NIH budget. He observes that only 3 cents of every health care dollar goes to research, a finding Research!America has established, and which Research!America public opinion polling reveals is not considered by the American public to be adequate to the importance of finding cures and preventions for disease and disability. Research!America debuts NEWS IN BRIEF, a publication to inform and educate medical science reporters and writers about new discoveries and the high cost of disease and illness; it is distributed monthly to media and Members of Congress.

The Honorable Paul G. Rogers, a former congressman widely known as “Mr. Health,” is elected Research!America Board chair. Research!America launches the signature 435 Project® to remind citizens in all 435 congressional districts that they have a voice for medical research. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Dana Foundation are major sponsors. Research!America holds a Capitol Hill event with The Mary Woodard Lasker Charitable Trust.

Research!America holds first Research Advocacy Awards Dinner to honor outstanding advocates for medical, health and scientific research. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) offer a budget amendment to make funds available for doubling the NIH budget. Rep. John Edward Porter (R-IL) spearheads concurrent doubling effort in the House.

Under the leadership of Research!America Board member John Whitehead, the Campaign for Medical Research, an independent, not-for-profit, 501(c)(4) organization, is launched in partnership with Research!America. The goal is to double funding for NIH in five years. The Wall Street Journal recognizes Research!America, chaired by Paul G. Rogers, as a driving force behind the FY99 15% increase to the NIH budget. Research!America holds first research and communication forum at the University of Kentucky with researchers and journalism students. Research!America hosts a research partners forum with the University of Colorado and affiliated institutions.

Research!America’s many-year partnership with PARADE Magazine kicks off with the publication of an article by former Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL) recounting how he changed his mind about the value of research after being diagnosed with heart disease. Sen. Simon cites relevant Research!America-commissioned public opinion poll data. Research!America releases first annual poll data summary, America Speaks Vol.1 , a publication underwritten by the United Health Foundation.

With a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation , Research!America launches the Prevention Research Initiative to elevate prevention research to a higher national priority. A sister organization, Research Australia, is established.

By an act of Congress, The Paul G. Rogers Plaza on the NIH campus is dedicated in honor of Research!America’s chair. Under his leadership, as well as that of Vice Chair William A. Peck, MD, Research!America releases the Research!America Blueprint Initiative, outlining how to ensure national progress and prosperity through research.

Research!America presents the first Eugene Garfield Economic Impact of Medical and Health Research Award with founding support from Research!America Board member and founder of the Institute for Scientific Information, Eugene Garfield, PhD. Research!America releases first report estimating annual U.S. investment in medical and health research across all sectors of the research ecosystem. Investment in Research Saves Lives and Money , a series of one-page fact sheets, launches with support from Lasker/Funding First, a program of the Mary Woodard Lasker Charitable Trust.

The doubling of the NIH budget over five years is complete, a successful multi-organizational effort in which the Research!America alliance played a leadership role. In partnership with the University of Texas at Austin and The Greenwall Foundation, Research!America hosts a media/science forum on public understanding of stem cell research in Texas.

The first of a regular series of Research!America/ PARADE Health Polls is launched. A PARADE Magazine cover story, “They May Save Your Life,” features six researchers from a variety of scientific disciplines calling attention to the enormous value of medical and health research. The Campaign for Public Health, an independent, not-for-profit, 501(c)(4) organization, is formed with the goal of increasing funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Research!America Board member Evan Jones is founding chair. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund internship program at Research!America is established.

The Honorable John Edward Porter, who retired from the Congress in 2000, is elected Board chair. The Honorable Paul G. Rogers remains active with Research!America as chair emeritus. An overview of 10 years of Research!America public opinion research is published in a special issue of JAMA-The Journal of the American Medical Association . The first known estimate of U.S. investment in global health research is released in a new report, sponsored by The Ellison Medical Foundation. Research!America’s stem cell poll is featured on the cover of PARADE Magazine. Public Health Thank You Day is launched to salute the work of the public health community. A sister organization, Research Canada, is established.

The Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research is launched, with initial funding provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Research!America, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, and additional partners launch the award-winning Your Candidates-Your Health voter education initiative , the first-ever outreach to all candidates for Congress to ask their positions on medical, health and scientific research.

Research!America, the Lasker Foundation and additional partners launch the award-winning Your Congress-Your Health , asking all Members of Congress to indicate their positions on medical and health research. In partnership with public health leaders in Pennsylvania, Research!America conducts four targeted advocacy training workshops for public health professionals and researchers.

Research!America and partners engage on the Your Candidates-Your Health initiative for the 2008 presidential and congressional primaries and election, reaching 111 million Americans through news coverage about research as an election issue. The research and health community mourns the death of Research!America’s chair emeritus , The Honorable Paul G. Rogers.

NIH receives a $10 billion increase, NSF receives a $3 billion increase and AHRQ receives a $1.1 billion increase as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, following aggressive advocacy by Research!America and its partners. A $1 billion prevention and wellness fund is established, part of which is allocated to CDC. Research!America co-sponsors Rock Stars of ScienceTM, a new media campaign created by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation. In partnership with the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation and the Foundation for the NIH, Research!America honors Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) for their leadership and shared commitment to making research for health a higher national priority. Research!America launches the New Voices for Research initiative to empower young professionals to transform their passion for research into advocacy.

Research!America launches state-focused advocacy on the economic impact of global health R&D, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The first series of Capitol Hill briefings focused on global health R&D in Illinois. A sister organization, Research!Sweden, is established.

Research!America analyzes the attitudes of Tea Party supporters toward medical and health research in polling and focus groups. As budget cuts threaten to derail the pace of research to improve health, Research!America embarks on an intensified advocacy campaign to promote funding and incentives for medical and health research.

In the face of a decade of devastating cuts to federal research, Research!America releases a new report, “Sequestration: Health Research at the Breaking Point.” Research!America launches the Save Research Campaign , with 142 active partner organizations participating in grassroots advocacy, advertising, increased media coverage and significant social media outreach to inform Congress and the White House: We Need Cures, Not Cuts! (#curesnotcuts). Research!America launches a global health ad campaign, Nice Save , to highlight the payoffs of repurposing research. Ads are widely featured in publications and DC Metro system. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute science policy fellowship program is established at Research!America.

Research!America conducts first Advocacy Academy for early-career scientists and hosts the Research Matters Communications workshop in partnership with George Washington University, Elsevier and the Society for Neuroscience. Research!America launches a congressional recess social media campaign and radio tour in key congressional districts to fight sequestration, reaching more than 900,000 people nationwide.

NIH dedicates the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center, a state of the art research facility on the Bethesda, MD campus named in honor of Research!America Chair, Hon. John Porter. The “Ask Your Candidates” national voter education initiative engages congressional candidates and voters on issues related to medical progress and innovation for the mid-term elections.

Research!America supports the 21st Century Cures Act, sweeping legislation to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of life-saving treatments and therapies to patients. The measure was approved by the House in July. Research!America launches Campaign for Cures: Vote for Medical Progress, a national voter education initiative for the presidential and congressional elections, and releases a joint national public opinion survey on science and the 2016 elections undertaken with ScienceDebate.org.

The 21st Century Cures Act is signed into law as a result of sustained, strategic advocacy campaigns by Research!America, member organizations and partners. The National Institutes of Health receives a $2 billion increase in FY16, the largest funding increase for the agency in a decade, due to advocacy initiatives and strong congressional bipartisan support for research. Research!America and partners host regional programs and release state-based public opinion surveys on medical research and innovation in Louisiana, Georgia, Colorado and Ohio.

Research!America launches a joint “Raise the Caps” grassroots and communications campaign in partnership with several scientific organizations to lift federal spending caps in FY18 and FY19.  The alliance releases the “2013 – 2016 U.S. Investments in Medical and Health Research and Development” report highlighting trends in R&D investments from academia, industry, government, research institutions, professional societies and voluntary health associations. Research!America and Shepherd University host a regional program in West Virginia on the opioid epidemic and the health and economic impact of research with Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Shelly Moore-Capito (R-WV), and commissions national and state-based public opinion surveys on clinical trials, medical research and innovation.

The Research!America-led cross-science “Raise the Caps” campaign helps secure an agreement to lift the caps on federal spending for Fiscal Year 2018 and Fiscal Year 2019; our day in, day out medical and health research-focused advocacy also helped spur Congress to sign into law $3 billion and $2 billion increases for NIH in FY18 and FY19 respectively, increases in the budgets of CDC, FDA, NSF, and AHRQ; and a second, two-year suspension of the Medical device excise tax; we executed a midterm election voter and candidate engagement initiative featuring microgrants for student groups pursuing nonpartisan candidate outreach; and we played an important role in preventing a number of harmful proposals from advancing, among them: additional restrictions on already tightly regulated fetal tissue research; de-funding of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ); and a “rescissions” package that would have reduced resources for such priorities as Ebola response and health economics research; and a year-long voter and candidate engagement initiative that featured microgrants for postdoc groups spearheading nonpartisan candidate engagement activities.

After intensive efforts, the budget caps were raised, and we saw strong increases in funding for NIH, NSF, CDC, and FDA. Together, we secured a repeal of the medical device tax and strengthened public health infrastructure. We also increased our outreach to early-career scientists through our growing microgrant program which supported civic engagement.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we pivoted to digital events for our members, including weekly alliance member meetings with over 56 guest speakers and a Virtual National Health Research Forum that attracted 1,600 registered participants, featured over 90 speakers, and generated coverage on PBS and CNN. We also worked together with our allies to increase funding for COVID-19 research, promoted public-private partnerships, and fought efforts to restrict international students and researchers from U.S. universities. We continued to amplify the voices of early career researchers and supported the important efforts of the Science and Technology Action Committee.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued, we kept our members informed in real time by continuing to host weekly virtual programming. We hosted 47 alliance member meetings and a second virtual National Health Research Forum . The Forum attracted 1,300 participants, featured nearly 100 speakers, and was mentioned in over 400 news articles. We empowered early career scientists by administering our fourth cycle of the Civic Engagement Microgrant Program and hosting the inaugural Early Career Summit , which equipped participants with skills in civic engagement, science communication, and science policy. We provided members of Congress with frequently updated resources on pandemic-related R&D, and successfully advocated for increased NIH, NSF, FDA, CDC, and AHRQ funding. We successfully built momentum to stand-up ARPA-H, a high-risk, high-reward incubator for translational science; innovative solutions like ARPA-H are the kind of big thinking necessary to address future health challenges. We secured a $5 million endowment from Johnson & Johnson to support a new category of Advocacy Awards , the Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Awards. These Awards will amplify our ability to celebrate and champion the role individuals and organizations play through research, communication, and public-private partnerships in confronting public health threats that jeopardize our security, prosperity, and well-being.

Federal research agencies received across-the-board funding increases, including $2.5 billion for NIH. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) was officially established on March 15. Congress reauthorized “user fees,” enabling the FDA to approve critical new drugs and devices for patients. It also reauthorized small business research grants to build out U.S. R&D capacity. Research!America and the Science Technology Action Committee helped build support for the landmark passage of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act , which authorized $174 billion in funding over the next five years for various federal science agencies to invest in STEM, workforce development, and R&D. In addition to our annual national survey, we commissioned surveys in partnership with Virginia Tech and the Dana Foundation.

Research!America continued to play a pivotal role in advocating for increased investment in scientific research and fostering collaboration among key stakeholders. Federal research agencies saw a boost in funding, including a $2.5 billion increase for the NIH and a $1 billion increase for the NSF. At the 2023 National Health Research Forum, we presented the first-ever $200,000 Discovery | Innovation | Health Prize, generously supported by Pfizer, to Nevan Krogan, PhD, Director of UCSF’s Quantitative Biosciences Institute, for his trailblazing efforts to address future pandemic threats. The Alliance successfully broke the logjam preventing Senate confirmation of a new NIH director resulting in the confirmation and swearing-in of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli. Research!America helped to launch and lead the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science, which aims for all people to have equitable access to accurate, understandable, and relevant information to make appropriate health decisions. Additionally, in partnership with Emory University, we commissioned a first-of-its-kind, statewide survey that captured Georgians’ views of the maternal health crisis facing the state.

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Research Institute of America

The Research Institute of America Inc. is a corporate-oriented, economics consultancy with a tax emphasis. It is based in Fifth Avenue, New York. Among other things, it produces publications like "State and Local Taxes" (comparison charts), "What you should know about your social security now" (RIA Employee Handbook); The RIA complete analysis of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of '82; the RIA's Federal Tax Handbook , and papers on taxation in all 50 States.

They also have a library service which can supply companies with material on the various tax codes, excises, etc including some publicised Opinion Polls. [2] . Their weekly "Recommendations" newsletter has snippets of information and hearsay about various Congressional and international political activities, plus some commentary. There is a distinct 'national defense' emphasis in addition to the tax and local industrial/economics commentary. [3]

The intriguing gaps in our knowledge about the RIA was that: 1. William J. Casey listed them as his place of work before he ran Ronald Reagan's primary and presidential campaigns; established the Manhattan Institute ; and then took over the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and 2. Jeffrey St. John , the ultra-conservative TV opinion program maker also worked for them doing statistical studies. [4]

They were certainly operating before 1974. The tobacco document archives has 222 instances of the name in documents -- but nothing of much interest to anyone other than a tax lawyer .

Documents & Timeline

1977 "What you should know about your social security now" (RIA Employee Handbook); [5]

1980 The RIA file at the Tobacco Institute contains only a payment slip for $15.94 paid to Mt Kisco, NY. It appears to be related to Employee Benefits Compliance. [6]

1984 In this year they were producing an 'operational report ALERT which obviously contained an item of interest to the Tobacco Institute (re an adverse statement on the productivity of smokers) [7] The Chairman of the Board was Warren Meeker.

1986 The Tobacco Institute library renewed its subscription of $39.72 to The Research Institute of America, Inc. in Rochester NY. [8]

1987 Apr An article in the March edition of Employee Benefits News "Smoking Poses New Dilemma" has resulted in many requests for the TI's "workplace assistance program". One of these was the Research Institute of America. [9]

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• NATURE INDEX
• 29 April 2020

Leading research institutions 2020

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A researcher at the University of California, San Diego, prepares to launch a 3D-printed rocket. Credit: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing has topped the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables list as the most prolific producer of research published in the 82 selected journals tracked by the Index (see Graphic).

CAS’s Share of 1805.22 in 2019 was almost twice that of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which came in second. Research institutions from China, the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom feature among the ten most prolific institutions in the Index. See the 2020 Annual Tables Top 100 research institutions for 2019 .

(Share, formerly referred to in the Nature Index as Fractional Count (FC), is a measure of an entity’s contribution to articles in the 82 journals tracked by the index, calculated according to the proportion of its affiliated authors on an article relative to all authors on the article. When comparing data over time, Share values are adjusted to 2019 levels to account for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in the Nature Index journals. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. See Editor’s note below.)

Source: Nature Index

Here is a selection of institutions from the top 25 of the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables .

University of Science and Technology of China

Share: 455.82; Count: 1,231; Change in adjusted Share (2018–19): +25.6%; Place: 8th

Established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1958 in Beijing (then known as Peking), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) moved to its current location in Hefei, the capital of the eastern Chinese province of Anhui, in 1970.

Today, it employs about 16,000 students, including 1,900 PhD students, as well as 1,812 faculty members, 547 of which are professors.

Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables

The institution’s strongest subjects in the Nature Index are chemistry and physical sciences. USTC is a global collaborator, counting the Max Planck Society in Munich, Germany, the University of Oxford, UK, and Stanford University in California among its close partners.

In 2019, USTC researchers were part of an international team that discovered a stellar black hole with a mass 70 times greater than that of the Sun. The findings, published in Nature , were mentioned in more than 300 tweets and nearly 200 news stories, according to Altmetric.

University of Michigan, United States

Share: 343.45; Count: 939; Change in adjusted Share (2018–19): − 3.3%; Place: 19th

Placed first among public universities in the United States for research volume, according to the US National Science Foundation, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor encompasses 260,000 square metres of lab space, which is accessed by students and staff in 227 centres and institutes across its campus.

With US$1.62 billion in research expenditure and more than 500 new invention reports in the fiscal year 2019, the University of Michigan is focused on innovative areas in research, including data science, precision health and bioscience. Its Global CO 2 Initiative, launched in 2018, aims to identify and pursue commercially sustainable approaches that reduce atmospheric CO 2 levels by 4 gigatons per year.

A 2019 study published in Science on honesty and selfishness across cultures, led by behavioural economist Alain Cohn, was covered by almost 300 online news outlets and reached more than 22 million people on Twitter, according to Altmetric. The study, which tested people’s willingness to return a dummy lost wallet, revealed a ‘high level’ of civic honesty.

University of California, San Diego, United States

Share: 340.85; Count: 1,048; Change in adjusted Share (2018–19): − 1.2%; Place: 20th

With US$1.35 billion in annual research funding, the University of California, San Diego, is a force in natural-sciences research, particularly in oceanography and the life sciences.

Its health-sciences group, which includes the School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, brought in US$761 million in research funding in the fiscal year 2019, and Scripps Oceanography, one of the world’s oldest and largest centres for research in ocean and Earth science, won $180 million in funding.

The university also has a focus on innovation, with more than 2,500 active inventions, 1,870 US and foreign patents, and 31 start-ups launched in 2018 by faculty members, students and staff. One such start-up was CavoGene LifeSciences, which aims to develop gene therapies to treat neurodegenerative disease.

Zhejiang University, China

Share: 329.82; Count: 815; Change in adjusted Share (2018–19): +10.5%; Place: 23rd

Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, is part of the Chinese government’s Double First Class Plan, which aims to develop several world-class universities by 2050. It employs 3,741 full-time faculty members and partners with nearly 200 institutions around the world.

Zhejiang’s total research funding reached 4.56 billion yuan (US$644 million) in 2018, with 926 projects supported by the Chinese National Natural Science Fund and 1,838 Chinese invention patents issued. The university is home to materials scientist Dawei Di, who was listed as a top innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2019 for his work on organic light-emitting diodes and perovskite light-emitting diodes.

In 2019, Zheijiang researchers published a Science paper with an international team that proposed a method for boosting plant growth while reducing water use, which could contribute to more sustainable agriculture practices.

Northwestern University, United States

Share: 317.12; Count: 762; Change in adjusted Share (2018–19): − 7.6%; Place: 25th

Founded as a private research university in 1851, Northwestern University, based in Evanston, Illinois, now also has campuses in Chicago and Doha, Qatar, and employs 3,300 full-time research staff. It has an annual budget of US$2 billion and attracts more than US$700 million for sponsored research each year.

The fastest-rising institution in the United States in high-quality life-sciences research output, Northwestern University was also 14th in the world in chemistry in the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables .

Its star researchers include mathematician Emmy Murphy, one of six recipients of the 2020 New Horizons Prize for her work in the field of topology — the study of geometric properties and relationships — and physicist John Joseph Carrasco and neuroscientist Andrew Miri, who in February were awarded prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01230-x

This article is part of Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Editor’s note: The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at natureindex.com .

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Dr. Farina has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2000. He’s also served as Treasurer. He is the president and owner of Progressive Rehabilitation Agency, Inc., as well as the vice president of Sarasota Therapy Centers, and President of Crossfit Rebels, Clearwater, FL. Dr. Farina is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and The Florida Physical Therapy Association. His research has been published in the peer-reviewed journals Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association.

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Ms. Murray is the Chief Operating Officer of The Florida Knee and Orthopedic Institutes in Pinellas and Paso counties, FL. For 15 year, she has successfully managed these multi-surgeon orthopedic practices. Mariellen is a member of the BONES society her leadership and coordination with volunteer participants has been invaluable to ARIA.

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The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)   and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are organizing a two-day symposium on suicide prevention   , a key priority of the Americas' public health agenda. The symposium will provide an opportunity for countries in the Region and relevant actors to discuss advances and gaps in suicide research, evidence-based interventions, and how to strengthen links between research and policy for suicide prevention.

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• To discuss the current state of knowledge on suicide risk and prevention, evidence-based prevention strategies, and optimal service delivery approaches;
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• To foster multisectoral collaboration between governments, academic institutions, and civil society to promote strategies to prevent self-harm and suicide, and
• To discuss suicide prevention priorities for the Region.

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• NIMH’s Center for Global Mental Health Research (CGMHR) supports mental health research in low-resource settings in order to accelerate and enrich scientific advancements while helping to reduce mental health disparities globally and domestically. Guided by NIMH’s suicide prevention research priorities, the CGMHR is expanding investment in global suicide prevention research, as noted in the recently launched Suicide Prevention Program: Suicide Prevention Across the Lifespan in Low-and Middle-Income Countries.
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WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Getting the right amount of uninterrupted sleep at the right time of day is key to one’s overall health. About 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep or wakefulness disorders. Sleep deficiency and untreated sleep disorders are associated with a growing number of health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers. Sleep disorders can also be costly. Each year sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, and sleepiness add to the national health care bill. Undiagnosed sleep apnea alone is estimated to cost the Nation $150 billion annually. Additional costs to society for related health problems, lost worker productivity, and accidents make sleep disorders a serious public health concern. The NHLBI funds research to discover better ways to promote and achieve sleep health, inform public policy, and increase community awareness to enhance human health.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• NHLBI-funded research helped determine that adults who report regularly sleeping 7-8 hours a night have a lower risk of obesity and high blood pressure.
• Our research found that untreated sleep apnea increases the risk for new onset atrial fibrillation.
• NHLBI-research found that untreated sleep apnea also increases the risk for high blood pressure and diabetes during pregnancy.

OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

Although researchers have learned a lot about sleep and sleep disorders in recent years, important questions remain, such as how sleep and circadian disturbances affect human health and how to best prevent, diagnose, and treat these disorders. In 2016, the NHLBI released its Strategic Vision , which will guide the Institute’s research activities for the coming decade. Many of the objectives, compelling questions, and critical challenges identified in the plan focus on sleep. For example, researchers will be looking at whether changing the time of day (circadian rhythm) when one sleeps, eats, and takes medicines can help improve existing treatments for other diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma. Training the next generation of sleep scientists is also a high priority for NHLBI.

Partnering on Sleep Research and Health - Sleep Science and Sleep Disorders

NHLBI will continue to work with its partners to translate scientific sleep research discoveries into improved strategies to prevent and treat sleep disorders. NHLBI is committed to working with researchers, health care providers, and public and private organizations to implement the research opportunities outlined in the NIH Sleep Research Plan. Recommended research initiatives include looking at the connection between sleep and the body’s natural circadian rhythm, studying the influence of genetic and environmental factors that could influence a person's sleep health, and conducting more clinical trials to improve treatments for sleep and circadian disorders.

Improving the Sleep Health of our Nation - Sleep Science and Sleep Disorders

Sleep health continues to be a nationwide health improvement priority in Healthy People 2030 . Healthy People provides science-based, national objectives for improving the health of all Americans over a 10-year period. The sleep health goal calls for an increase in public knowledge about how adequate sleep and treatment of sleep disorders can improve health, productivity, wellness, quality of life, and safety on the roads and in the workplace. This will be accomplished by focusing on four objectives:

• Increase the proportion of people with symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea who seek medical evaluation.
• Reduce the rate of vehicular crashes per 100 million miles traveled that are due to drowsy driving.
• Increase the proportion of students in grades 9-12 who get sufficient sleep.
• Increase the proportion of adults who get sufficient sleep.

NHLBI is advancing research and clinical care for people with sleep disorders. Learn more about some of our key efforts related to sleep science and sleep disorders.

We Perform Research

The NHLBI Division of Intramural Research and its Systems Biology Center are studying how genes and the environment influence sleep.

We Fund Research

The NHLBI Division of Lung Diseases is home to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research , which supports research on sleep and the circadian biology of sleep disorders, including how the body regulates breathing during sleep, how sleep deficiencies affect the whole body, and what biomarkers can help assess sleep health. Other NHLBI Divisions support sleep research, including why sleep deficiency is a risk factor for obesity and some cardiovascular diseases, and how sleep and biology affect blood clotting, the immune system, and blood cell production.

The Promise of Precision Medicine

Through NHLBI’s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program , researchers will use data from studies focused on heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders to better predict, prevent, diagnose, and treat sleep disorders based on a patient’s unique genes, environment, and molecular signatures. Learn more about the NHLBI precision medicine activities .

Coordinating Efforts to Address the Nation's Health Challenges

For more than 25 years, NHLBI’s National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) has supported and coordinated sleep science and disorders research, training, and awareness across NIH, other federal agencies and outside organizations. The center also participates in the translation of new sleep research findings for dissemination to healthcare professionals and the public. Read Celebrating 25 Years of Research to Promote Healthy Sleep to learn more about the Center's legacy in research and initiatives.

Facilitating Discussions on Sleep Disorders

The NHLBI supports the Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board. Board members, including medical professionals, federal partners, and members of the public, meet regularly to provide feedback on sleep-related research and discuss how to move sleep research forward.

Partnering on Sleep Apnea and Pregnancy Outcomes Research

The NHLBI partnered with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the NuMoM2B study , which found that sleep deficiency and mild sleep apnea in pregnant women increases the risk of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and diabetes.  The NHLBI and the NICHD are now studying whether the treatment of sleep apnea during pregnancy reduces these risks.

Collaborating on Sleep Apnea and Diabetes Research

The NHLBI partnered with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for the Sleep Ahead study, an offshoot of the Look Ahead study. Sleep Ahead found sleep apnea in over 80 percent of participants who had obesity and type 2 diabetes. It also found that weight loss reduced sleep apnea better than a diabetes education program. These findings have led to new co-sponsored studies with NIDDK, such as TODAY2, to see if sleep apnea affects diabetes medicines.

Providing Sleep Data and Resources for Researchers

The National Sleep Research Resource is an NHLBI resource for the sleep science community. It offers researchers free access to large collections of well-characterized data from completed studies that the NHLBI has funded. These data can be used in new research studies to advance sleep research.

Providing Access to NHLBI Biologic Specimens and Data

The Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center (BioLINCC) centralizes and integrates biospecimens and clinical data that were once stored in separate repositories. Researchers can find and request available resources on BioLINCC's secure website, which maximizes the value of these resources and advances heart, lung, blood, and sleep research.

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Study models how ketamine’s molecular action leads to its effects on the brain

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Ketamine, a World Health Organization Essential Medicine, is widely used at varying doses for sedation, pain control, general anesthesia, and as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression. While scientists know its target in brain cells and have observed how it affects brain-wide activity, they haven’t known entirely how the two are connected. A new study by a research team spanning four Boston-area institutions uses computational modeling of previously unappreciated physiological details to fill that gap and offer new insights into how ketamine works.

“This modeling work has helped decipher likely mechanisms through which ketamine produces altered arousal states as well as its therapeutic benefits for treating depression,” says co-senior author Emery N. Brown , the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Medical Engineering at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, as well as an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

The researchers from MIT, Boston University (BU), MGH, and Harvard University say the predictions of their model, published May 20 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , could help physicians make better use of the drug.

“When physicians understand what's mechanistically happening when they administer a drug, they can possibly leverage that mechanism and manipulate it,” says study lead author Elie Adam , a research scientist at MIT who will soon join the Harvard Medical School faculty and launch a lab at MGH. “They gain a sense of how to enhance the good effects of the drug and how to mitigate the bad ones.”

Blocking the door

The core advance of the study involved biophysically modeling what happens when ketamine blocks the “NMDA” receptors in the brain’s cortex — the outer layer where key functions such as sensory processing and cognition take place. Blocking the NMDA receptors modulates the release of excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate.

When the neuronal channels (or doorways) regulated by the NMDA receptors open, they typically close slowly (like a doorway with a hydraulic closer that keeps it from slamming), allowing ions to go in and out of neurons, thereby regulating their electrical properties, Adam says. But, the channels of the receptor can be blocked by a molecule. Blocking by magnesium helps to naturally regulate ion flow. Ketamine, however, is an especially effective blocker.

Blocking slows the voltage build-up across the neuron’s membrane that eventually leads a neuron to “spike,” or send an electrochemical message to other neurons. The NMDA doorway becomes unblocked when the voltage gets high. This interdependence between voltage, spiking, and blocking can equip NMDA receptors with faster activity than its slow closing speed might suggest. The team’s model goes further than ones before by representing how ketamine’s blocking and unblocking affect neural activity.

“Physiological details that are usually ignored can sometimes be central to understanding cognitive phenomena,” says co-corresponding author Nancy Kopell , a professor of mathematics at BU. “The dynamics of NMDA receptors have more impact on network dynamics than has previously been appreciated.”

With their model, the scientists simulated how different doses of ketamine affecting NMDA receptors would alter the activity of a model brain network. The simulated network included key neuron types found in the cortex: one excitatory type and two inhibitory types. It distinguishes between “tonic” interneurons that tamp down network activity and “phasic” interneurons that react more to excitatory neurons.

The team’s simulations successfully recapitulated the real brain waves that have been measured via EEG electrodes on the scalp of a human volunteer who received various ketamine doses and the neural spiking that has been measured in similarly treated animals that had implanted electrode arrays. At low doses, ketamine increased brain wave power in the fast gamma frequency range (30-40 Hz). At the higher doses that cause unconsciousness, those gamma waves became periodically interrupted by “down” states where only very slow frequency delta waves occur. This repeated disruption of the higher frequency waves is what can disrupt communication across the cortex enough to disrupt consciousness.

Previous item Next item

But how? Key findings

Importantly, through simulations, they explained several key mechanisms in the network that would produce exactly these dynamics.

The first prediction is that ketamine can disinhibit network activity by shutting down certain inhibitory interneurons. The modeling shows that natural blocking and unblocking kinetics of NMDA-receptors can let in a small current when neurons are not spiking. Many neurons in the network that are at the right level of excitation would rely on this current to spontaneously spike. But when ketamine impairs the kinetics of the NMDA receptors, it quenches that current, leaving these neurons suppressed. In the model, while ketamine equally impairs all neurons, it is the tonic inhibitory neurons that get shut down because they happen to be at that level of excitation. This releases other neurons, excitatory or inhibitory, from their inhibition allowing them to spike vigorously and leading to ketamine’s excited brain state. The network’s increased excitation can then enable quick unblocking (and reblocking) of the neurons’ NMDA receptors, causing bursts of spiking.

Another prediction is that these bursts become synchronized into the gamma frequency waves seen with ketamine. How? The team found that the phasic inhibitory interneurons become stimulated by lots of input of the neurotransmitter glutamate from the excitatory neurons and vigorously spike, or fire. When they do, they send an inhibitory signal of the neurotransmitter GABA to the excitatory neurons that squelches the excitatory firing, almost like a kindergarten teacher calming down a whole classroom of excited children. That stop signal, which reaches all the excitatory neurons simultaneously, only lasts so long, ends up synchronizing their activity, producing a coordinated gamma brain wave.

“The finding that an individual synaptic receptor (NMDA) can produce gamma oscillations and that these gamma oscillations can influence network-level gamma was unexpected,” says co-corresponding author Michelle McCarthy , a research assistant professor of math at BU. “This was found only by using a detailed physiological model of the NMDA receptor. This level of physiological detail revealed a gamma time scale not usually associated with an NMDA receptor.”

So what about the periodic down states that emerge at higher, unconsciousness-inducing ketamine doses? In the simulation, the gamma-frequency activity of the excitatory neurons can’t be sustained for too long by the impaired NMDA-receptor kinetics. The excitatory neurons essentially become exhausted under GABA inhibition from the phasic interneurons. That produces the down state. But then, after they have stopped sending glutamate to the phasic interneurons, those cells stop producing their inhibitory GABA signals. That enables the excitatory neurons to recover, starting a cycle anew.

Antidepressant connection?

The model makes another prediction that might help explain how ketamine exerts its antidepressant effects. It suggests that the increased gamma activity of ketamine could entrain gamma activity among neurons expressing a peptide called VIP. This peptide has been found to have health-promoting effects, such as reducing inflammation, that last much longer than ketamine’s effects on NMDA receptors. The research team proposes that the entrainment of these neurons under ketamine could increase the release of the beneficial peptide, as observed when these cells are stimulated in experiments. This also hints at therapeutic features of ketamine that may go beyond antidepressant effects. The research team acknowledges, however, that this connection is speculative and awaits specific experimental validation.

“The understanding that the subcellular details of the NMDA receptor can lead to increased gamma oscillations was the basis for a new theory about how ketamine may work for treating depression,” Kopell says.

Additional co-authors of the study are Marek Kowalski, Oluwaseun Akeju, and Earl K. Miller.

The work was supported by the JPB Foundation; The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory; The Simons Center for The Social Brain; the National Institutes of Health; George J. Elbaum ’59, SM ’63, PhD ’67; Mimi Jensen; Diane B. Greene SM ’78; Mendel Rosenblum; Bill Swanson; and annual donors to the Anesthesia Initiative Fund.

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