The University of Florida (UF) is the flagship university for the state of Florida, the nation’s third most populous state. Located in Gainesville, UF has 16 colleges, a major academic health center, championship-winning athletics, and, in keeping with its land-grant mission, one of the nation’s most comprehensive agriculture and natural resources programs. The university’s 2,000-acre campus joins a historic core with advanced research and classroom facilities and preserved natural areas, all connecting to adjacent innovation, commercial, and residential districts. UF is ranked 7th among the nation’s top public research universities in the 2025 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings.
UF has over 60,000 students, 32,000 employees, a $10 billion annual budget, and more than 140 mission-focused units across Florida, including statewide health care and agricultural enterprises. It is one of only two public universities in Florida belonging to the Association of American Universities (comprising 71 leading public and private research universities in the U.S. and Canada). UF has more than 6,600 faculty members with distinguished records in teaching, research, and service, including 22 Eminent Scholar Chairs, 38 elected members of the National Academies, and 20 elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2024, UF research expenditures topped $1.26 billion.
As an example of a continuing focus on campuswide innovation, UF was the nation’s first university to implement artificial intelligence across the curriculum, with 350 faculty teaching more than 12,000 students enrolled in more than 200 AI classes. In 2023 UF opened the multidisciplinary Malachowsky Hall for Data Science & Information Technology, which leverages HiPerGator, a more-than 70,000 core massive computer cluster, ranked as the most powerful university-owned supercomputer in the U.S.
Several additional qualities distinguish UF among today’s leading public research universities. The first is its comprehensive breadth on a single campus, facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration. The second is its traditionally strong support from the state of Florida, which has consistently funded UF’s drive to become one of the nation’s best public research universities. UF’s third exceptional quality is its dynamism. UF is undergoing rapid transformation as it pursues its overarching aspiration “to be a premier university that the state, nation, and world look to for leadership.”
UF Health, the world-class academic health center of the University of Florida, combines scientific innovation at campuses around Florida with outstanding compassionate care at a network of hospitals and clinical practices throughout the state. The $6.3 billion system optimizes collective expertise to improve patient care, education, discovery, and the health of our communities.
With main campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville as well as satellite sites in Central Florida, St. Johns County, Ocala, and several other locations, UF Health provides quality health care to patients across the nation’s third-most populous state. The country’s only academic health center with six health-related colleges (Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Professions, and Veterinary Medicine) and a partner teaching hospital located on a single, contiguous campus, the system features 12 hospitals in total (including two teaching hospitals and five specialty hospitals), a host of physician medical practices and outpatient services, and numerous research centers and institutes, including The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, located in Jupiter.
UF Health is a world leader in interdisciplinary research, generating more than half of UF’s total research awards. Research activities reflect a depth of purpose by focusing on the translational nature of biomedical research, following fundamental research to clinical research to patient care.
The backbone of UF Health is a talented and dedicated workforce of more than 32,000 faculty and staff who provide lifesaving care and research breakthroughs for more than 4 million patients who come to UF Health each year from around the U.S. and more than 40 countries. UF Health is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities as part of the state’s “safety-net’’ hospital system, caring for people who have little or no medical coverage.
The College of Dentistry has earned a national reputation for excellence in education, research, patient care, and community service. Offering 12 degree and certificate programs, the college received 3,717 applications last year for 93 dental student positions and 65 advanced education positions — a 4% acceptance rate. UF was the first dental school to incorporate artificial intelligence into the DMD curriculum and currently has the largest digital dentistry center in an academic institution in the U.S. After graduation, 70% of UF’s dentists and specialists remain in the state to serve Florida residents. With $17 million in research funds during FY24, the college ranked third among public dental schools and sixth overall based on the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. Each year, UF dentists, students, and residents provide care for patients from all 67 counties in Florida in dental centers throughout the state through the UF Statewide Network for Community Oral Health, a combination of five UF-owned and 11 community dental centers.
The College of Medicine is the largest college within the University of Florida’s academic health center and one of the largest colleges within the university. Its mission is to improve health care in Florida, the nation, and the world through excellence and leadership in education, clinical care, discovery, and service. Within the College of Medicine, there are more than 25 centers, which encompass research, clinical, and training mission areas.
The College of Medicine has its primary medical school training site in Gainesville, closely affiliated with the Gainesville-based UF Health Shands Hospital. At this location, the college has 28 research-oriented foundational science and clinical academic departments that house 1,656 full-time faculty, 1,136 graduate students, 696 medical students and physician assistant students, and more than 1,000 residents and fellows. In addition to medical training, the college offers a variety of educational opportunities, including graduate programs leading to a PhD or an MS degree, and joint programs for MD and PhD degrees. The College of Medicine is also home to the School of Physician Assistant Studies. The college enjoys over $400 million in research support annually.
The College of Medicine has a 110-acre metropolitan regional educational campus located in Jacksonville. The campus is closely affiliated with UF Health Jacksonville, a comprehensive academic health center and the college’s urban teaching hospital. The hospital’s major centers include the Breast Center, the Cardiovascular Center, the Neuroscience Institute, the Women’s Health Center, and a Level I trauma center serving Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. Jacksonville is led by a dean overseeing 17 clinical departments, with 453 faculty members, 39 ACGME-accredited residency programs, and 21 clinical fellowships. In FY24, regional campus research reached a record $38 million. Third-year medical students spend about 25% of their training time at the Jacksonville campus, and elective rotations are available for the fourth year. Plans include attaining LCME regional campus designation and supporting a student cohort who would spend their entire third and fourth years at the Jacksonville campus.
The College of Nursing’s vision is to be a global catalyst for nursing excellence and transformative health innovation. The College of Nursing has three degree programs (BSN, DNP, and PhD), 574 baccalaureate nursing students, and 313 graduate nursing students. Research support at the college totaled $3.9 million in 2023 and the college ranked No. 10 in National Institutes of Health funding among public nursing colleges. Nearly 80% of all undergraduate students go to graduate school within three years of completing their BSN.
Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 pharmacy college in Florida and the No. 4 nationally, the University of Florida College of Pharmacy has been developing future leaders in pharmacy practice and science for more than a century. At campuses in Gainesville, Jacksonville, and Orlando, award-winning faculty aim to improve the health of Floridians and people across the world through pharmacy education, high-impact research, and clinical innovation. As one of the Top 3 pharmacy colleges nationally in annual research funding, the UF College of Pharmacy features preeminent researchers who are leading major medical breakthroughs in areas such as drug discovery and development, drug safety, and precision medicine.
The College of Public Health and Health Professions’ mission is to shape tomorrow’s public health and health professionals through dynamic and responsive educational programs, transformational research, groundbreaking discoveries, and equitable health-related service. While the college represents a great diversity of disciplines, all share a common focus on prevention and a commitment to a four-part mission of education, research, service, and clinical endeavors. The college enrolls more than 2,700 students across 25 academic programs of study, including three bachelor’s majors, MS, MPH, and MHA degrees; PhD programs; and professional doctorate programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology. The college is home to six federally funded T32 training grants. With more than $46 million in research funding in 2023-24, the college places in the top 10 in NIH research funding among schools of public health at public universities. Faculty, staff, and students take an active role in serving the community, including three student-run equal access clinics offering free clinical psychology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy services to people who are uninsured or underinsured.
The College of Veterinary Medicine, ranked seventh nationally by U.S. News & World Report, has seven degree programs, 192 faculty, 536 DVM students, 84 on-campus MS/PhD students, 288 distance education/online MS students, 85 residents, 26 interns, and two fellows. The college also offers a dual DVM/MPH degree program and offers special interest DVM certificate programs in Aquatic Animal Health, Veterinary Business Management, Food Animal Veterinary Medicine, and Shelter Medicine. Faculty in five academic departments pursue clinical, translational, and basic science research with FY24 research expenditures of $15.5 million. The UF Veterinary Hospitals have three locations and boast one of the largest small animal caseloads of all academic veterinary medical hospitals in the U.S.
The Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida unites 250+ researchers working to enhance lives through neuroscience research and education. These investigators work at all levels of translational science to advance fundamental discovery and revolutionize clinical impact in three research areas: acquired neural disorders; cognition, behavior, and sensation; and neurological diseases. The MBI’s state-of-the-art, six-story building houses the laboratories of many of its researchers and provides investigators from across UF access to advanced technology facilities. The MBI is committed to training the next generation of researchers through innovative and forward-thinking programs in its quest to transform the treatment of neural disorders.
The Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases is home to scientists and clinicians at UF Health who are working on neurological disorders that afflict millions of people across the globe. These conditions include movement disorders such as Parkinson’s, dystonia, and ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease); dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body disease; and concussions and traumatic brain injuries. UF Health physicians are conducting leading-edge treatments, such as deep brain stimulation and gene therapy, that are transforming patient care. Under the umbrella of the Fixel Institute, they will seek to revolutionize discoveries in Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases that will lead to new therapies that improve quality of life for patients and forever change how these conditions are treated.
The scientists of The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology work at the interface of chemistry, biology, and technology to explore the molecular basis of health and disease, and to develop new treatments. Thanks to drug discovery tools and expertise typical of a pharmaceutical firm, the institute’s scientists can see their discoveries in basic science translated into life-changing treatments in areas of unmet medical need. Centers of excellence and areas of expertise are many. They include inflammation science, RNA biology, new medicine development, natural products chemistry, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, and more. With a dozen world-class scientific core services on the institute’s Jupiter, Florida campus, including genetic perturbation, genomic sequencing, cryo-electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and mass spectrometry, scientists and collaborators can efficiently explore disease targets and find lead medicines, collaborating across disciplines.
The institute’s current pipeline of potential new medicines includes precision compounds and therapeutics engineered to address autism, autoimmune disease, ALS, Alzheimer’s, multiple cancers, depression, dementia, fibrosis, inflammation, muscular dystrophy, mood disorders, osteoporosis, pain, substance use disorders, and viral diseases, including HIV and SARS-CoV-2. The institute works closely with UF Innovate and UF Health colleagues to help accelerate the movement of these discoveries to patients, faster.
The UF Health Cancer Center blends comprehensive patient care and innovative research in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. In 2023, the center became the 72nd National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center and the only one based at a public university in the state of Florida. It boasts a membership of nearly 350 researchers and clinicians from across the University of Florida and UF Health. The cancer center and its members are dedicated to providing leading-edge cancer and conducting original research for the prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.
The UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute, CTSI, accelerates the journey of scientific discoveries from the laboratory to real-world applications by transforming them into new drugs, devices, and treatment options. This rapid translation of research findings not only improves health outcomes in our local communities and beyond but also ensures that effective new health care solutions reach those who need them most. Through the Recruitment Center and community engagement initiatives like HealthStreet, the institute provides meaningful opportunities for individuals to participate in health research conducted at the university. Furthermore, the CTSI Clinical Research Center serves as a dedicated space where researchers can engage directly with study participants, fostering an environment that supports groundbreaking research and innovation in patient care.
The UF Diabetes Institute is the umbrella organization for diabetes education, research, prevention, and treatment. More than 100 faculty members with the institute work to prevent, diagnose, and treat diabetes in the areas of genetics, endocrinology, epidemiology, patient and physician education, health outcomes and policy, behavioral science, rural medicine, and more. The institute is among the nation’s top five for Type 1 diabetes research. UF is internationally recognized for its efforts in diabetes care and research, and offers statewide diabetes education through UF/IFAS Extension in all 67 Florida counties.
Florida’s unique geography and climate require novel disease prevention and control strategies. Florida’s residents and industries, especially agriculture and tourism, are threatened by diseases such as Zika virus, dengue fever, H1N1 swine flu, and citrus greening. The UF Emerging Pathogens Institute was created to provide a world-class research environment to facilitate interdisciplinary studies into the emergence and control of human, animal, and plant pathogens of concern to Florida, the nation, and the world. The institute strives to understand the genetic changes and evolutionary drivers that lead to new pathogens; to appreciate the complex interaction of environmental and host factors that permit these pathogens to spread within plant, animal, and human populations; to train the next generation of investigators; and to disseminate information about such pathogens, and their control, to the people of Florida.
The UF Genetics Institute is a biomedical research center that promotes collaborative and multidisciplinary research using the tools of genetics and genomics. The institute involves more than 220 faculty members representing nine colleges and 51 academic departments. Their research includes fields such as human genetics, bioinformatics, agricultural and plant biology, and evolutionary biology. They study pressing issues such as the impact of climate change, health-related genetic mutations, and feeding an expanding global population.
The Institute for Child Health Policy serves as a transdisciplinary hub for child health research at the University of Florida. Institute multidisciplinary faculty and affiliate members are nationally
and internationally recognized for their expertise in pediatric care, health outcomes, and biomedical informatics, and are dedicated to conducting and promoting rigorous research that leads to impactful solutions for improving the lifelong health of children in Florida and nationwide.
The UF Institute on Aging builds relationships between researchers who study aging in different fields. The institute also focuses on the prevention of injury and illness in older adults. Other recent research endeavors include studying methods to help these patients better manage pain, preserve cognitive abilities, and maintain mobility. Maintaining mobility and independence helps older adults prevent declines in memory and cognition.
The University of Florida expanded its footprint in Orlando when it opened the UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona. The 110,000-square-foot LEED-certified facility is home to hundreds of faculty, staff, and students working in several institutes, centers, and college branches. They include the UF College of Pharmacy’s Doctorate in Pharmacy Program, the Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology, the Center for Quality Medication Management, the Florida Minority Cancer Research and Training Center, and the UF College of Medicine Institute for Therapeutic Innovation.
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