Researchers at Johns Hopkins were awarded $1.3 billion in 2006. About 42 percent of that was in the life sciences and 34 percent in engineering.
Coming in second place was the University of Washington at Seattle, which was awarded $650 million in federal research grants. Life sciences accounted for 70 percent of research funding. Environmental research accounted for 12.5 percent of research.
Michigan researchers were awarded $565 million in federal research grants. They spent 62 percent on life sciences and 18.9 percent on engineering.
Stanford University researchers reaped $540 million in federal grants. They took in 57.6 percent of that on life sciences, 21.4 percent on engineering and 12 percent on physical sciences.
University of Wisconsin - Madison researchers took in $491 million, spending 53 percent on life sciences, 14.1 percent on environmental sciences and 12.1 percent on engineering.
As with all ranking systems, the validity of any one measure is hotly debated. The above rankings in particular seem skewed toward schools that have made health research a priority.
The Center for Measuring University Performance measures schools using these criteria: federal research dollars, total research dollars, size of endowment, alumni giving, number of professors who are members of their respective national academies, awards given to faculty members, doctorates awarded, post-doctorate appointees, and range of SAT/ACT scores.
Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford all rank in the top 25 for each of the nine categories.
Harvard, The University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Duke University and University of Michigan - Ann Arbor sit in the top 25 for eight of the nine criteria.