PHILANTHROPIC PARTNERS
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH
U OF U HEALTH
PHILANTHROPIC
PARTNERS GROUP
We have ambitious goals to continue and accelerate our legacy of accomplishing the unexpected, the unanticipated, and the transformational. We need your help to keep the innovative, entrepreneurial, and pioneering fire alive. With your expertise, insight, and investment, we are uniquely positioned to solve the once unsolvable. With your support, we will launch into a new era of research.
After doubling in size in less than a decade, U of U Health research funding reached $521.5 million in fiscal year 2023. And we won’t stop there. Our researchers play a critical role in achieving the university’s ambitious goal to reach $1 billion in annual research funding, providing unsurpassed societal impact to the state of Utah and the nation. As we continue to grow in size and prestige, we remain committed to our mission of improving human health.
U OF U HEALTH PHILANTHROPIC PARTNERS GROUP
Since opening our two-year medical school in 1905, we’ve enticed some of the best minds in science and medicine to grow with us. Scientists here have gone from securing the first-ever National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant to leading more than 1,700 annually. We invented and implanted the first artificial heart, and now we’re pioneering personalized cardiac treatments. We launched the nation’s first biomedical informatics department, and now we’re training artificial intelligence to diagnose genetic disease in newborns. From the shoulders of giants, today’s researchers are launching the next generation of scientific discovery.
We have big goals. But, national funding for biomedical research is under attack. NIH funding is becoming increasingly constrained and conservative. Today, it’s the safe and predictable projects that survive. Proven results are often expected up front, and novel approaches are often rejected out of hand. This leaves great ideas unexplored—and talented junior faculty underfunded. Brilliant scientists are spending more time writing grant proposals than conducting research. Now more than ever, innovative ideas take innovative investments— allowing people to succeed, or fail, quickly to accelerate the discovery timeline.
U OF U HEALTH PHILANTHROPIC PARTNERS GROUP
The Philanthropic Partners have been formed to ignite innovation in today’s challenging climate. Strategically targeting vital areas of need with pooled resources and motivated by the pursuit of discovery, Philanthropic Partners will propel a straightforward idea that forms the bedrock of exceptional achievement— empowering the most brilliant minds to push the boundaries of their abilities and venture into uncharted territories, paving the way for a brighter and more promising tomorrow.
The group will comprise ambitious philanthropists who commit to contributing $25,000 annually for four years for a total of $100,000. These funds will be pooled and distributed by the Partners after hearing select presentations by researchers with inventive and innovative ideas who are in need of seed funding. With the goal of accelerating breakthroughs without constraints of federal funding, partners will award grants between $25,000-$100,000 to ignite high-risk, high-reward research ideas. The philanthropic investors will collectively accelerate discovery, innovation, and collaboration by serving as advocates and early investors in this research. Together, we will accelerate breakthroughs by allowing researchers to pursue, test, and refine their most innovative research ideas and address some of society's most pressing issues without the strings of federal funding.