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Home › Research › Funding

Who pays for Alzheimer's research

Where the money actually goes, and whether it's going up — computed from a complete, fully paginated pull of NIH's own public grants database, not a sample and not a press-release figure.

What this number is, and isn't

Every figure on this page comes from a search of NIH's public RePORTER database for projects whose title, abstract or terms contain the exact phrase "Alzheimer's disease", one fiscal year at a time, fully paginated — every matching project for FY2021 through FY2026 was actually retrieved and summed, not estimated from a sample. For every year, the number of records fetched exactly equals the API's own reported project count, so nothing here was truncated by pagination.

This is not NIH's official "how much we spend on Alzheimer's" figure. NIH's own categorical-spending total (RCDC) is compiled separately by NIH staff using a different method and may differ from this text-search total. And these are award amounts — funds committed to a project for that fiscal year — not a record of money actually spent to date on a multi-year grant.

$4.75B

NIH award dollars, FY2025 (most recent complete year)

NIH RePORTER
6,176

Projects funded in FY2024, the peak year — since fallen

NIH RePORTER
+23%

Growth in award dollars, FY2021 to FY2025

NIH RePORTER
15%

Share of FY2025 dollars taken by the top 5 funded organizations

NIH RePORTER

The trend: dollars up, project counts down since the FY2024 peak

Award dollars rose in most years covered here. The number of separate projects funded tells a different story: it grew to a peak in FY2024 (6,176 projects), then fell in each year since. Charting them on one shared scale would flatten that divergence, so they get separate axes below, aligned by year.

Two different stories: dollars vs. number of projects funded

Award dollars rose most years while the number of funded projects peaked in FY2024 (6,176 projects) and has fallen since.

NIH Alzheimer's-related funding: award dollars and project counts, FY2021-FY2026FY2021: $3.88B across 5,599 projects; FY2022: $4.30B across 5,964 projects; FY2023: $4.64B across 6,124 projects; FY2024: $4.60B across 6,176 projects; FY2025: $4.75B across 5,675 projects; FY2026 (partial): $4.59B across 5,446 projects.Award dollars per fiscal year$0B$1B$2B$3B$4B$5BProjects funded per fiscal year (count)02,0004,0006,000$3.88B5,599FY2021$4.30B5,964FY2022$4.64B6,124FY2023$4.60B6,176FY2024$4.75B5,675FY2025$4.59B5,446FY2026 (partial)Award dollarsProjects fundedFY2026 bars are lighter with a dashed outline: that fiscal year was still in progress on thefetch date, so its totals are partial, not a completed year.Two different y-axes on purpose: dollars and project counts tell different stories and are notmeant to share a scale.

This chart is wider than your screen — drag it sideways, or open the table underneath.

Source: NIH RePORTER, projects matching the exact phrase "Alzheimer's disease" in title, abstract or terms, one fiscal year at a time, fully paginated (not a sample). FY2026 is marked partial because it was still in progress on the fetch date (2026-09-27); do not read a decline into the FY2025-to-FY2026 change.
Every number in this chart, as a table
Fiscal yearProjectsAward dollarsStatus
FY20215,599$3.88BComplete
FY20225,964$4.30BComplete
FY20236,124$4.64BComplete
FY20246,176$4.60BComplete
FY20255,675$4.75BComplete
FY20265,446$4.59BPartial (in progress)
On FY2026: it is marked partial everywhere on this page because it was still in progress on the fetch date (2026-09-27). We cannot establish from this data alone how much of the FY2025-to-FY2026 dip is simply "not all of the year's awards exist yet" versus a real slowdown — so we are not claiming either one. Treat FY2026 as incomplete, not as a trend point.

Concentration: how much of the money goes to a few organizations

The source data carries the top 10 funded organizations by award amount for every one of the six fiscal years (60 organization-year rows in total) — full coverage, not a partial year-by-year sample. The top-5 share stays in a narrow band across all six years, 14.5%–16.5%, so funding is spread across many institutions rather than concentrating further over time.

Where the money went: top 10 funded organizations, FY2025

By summed NIH award amount among FY2025's matched projects. The top 5 alone took 14.6% of that year's total.

Top 10 organizations by NIH Alzheimer's-related award amount, FY2025Washington University, $179.2M; Columbia University Health Sciences, $148.4M; University Of Southern California, $122.7M; University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, $122.6M; University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh, $120.1M; University Of California, San Francisco, $115.3M; National Institute On Aging, $109.7M; University Of Pennsylvania, $109.5M; Massachusetts General Hospital, $105.6M; Johns Hopkins University, $93.3M.$0$50.0M$100.0M$150.0M$200.0MWashington University$179.2MColumbia University Health Sciences$148.4MUniversity Of Southern California$122.7MUniversity Of Michigan At Ann Arbor$122.6MUniversity Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh$120.1MUniversity Of California, San Francisco$115.3MNational Institute On Aging$109.7MUniversity Of Pennsylvania$109.5MMassachusetts General Hospital$105.6MJohns Hopkins University$93.3MTop 5 by award amountRanks 6-10Top 5 organizations took 14.6% of FY2025's $4.75B total; the top 10 took 25.8%.This dataset carries the top 10 organizations by award amount for every fiscal yearFY2021-FY2026 (60 organization-year rows in total); shown here is the most recent completeyear.

This chart is wider than your screen — drag it sideways, or open the table underneath.

FY2025 chosen as the most recent complete fiscal year (FY2026 is partial). Source: NIH RePORTER, Alzheimer's-tagged projects FY2021–2026, the ten organizations with the largest summed awards in 2025. Amounts are summed award amounts among that organization's matched projects only, not the organization's total NIH funding across all disease areas.
Every number in this chart, as a table
OrganizationAward amountShare of FY2025 total
Washington University$179.2M3.8%
Columbia University Health Sciences$148.4M3.1%
University Of Southern California$122.7M2.6%
University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor$122.6M2.6%
University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh$120.1M2.5%
University Of California, San Francisco$115.3M2.4%
National Institute On Aging$109.7M2.3%
University Of Pennsylvania$109.5M2.3%
Massachusetts General Hospital$105.6M2.2%
Johns Hopkins University$93.3M2.0%

Which NIH institutes fund this work

NIH Alzheimer's-tagged projects are not spread evenly across the agency: one institute dominates by a wide margin.

Which NIH institutes fund this work: FY2025 project counts

NIA (National Institute on Aging) funds the large majority of Alzheimer's-tagged projects: 70.6% of FY2025's 5,675.

NIH institutes/centers funding Alzheimer's-related projects, by project count, FY2025NIA, 4,006 projects; NINDS, 722 projects; NIGMS, 242 projects; NIMH, 102 projects; VA, 88 projects; NEI, 53 projects; NHLBI, 49 projects; NCI, 44 projects; OD, 41 projects; NIBIB, 41 projects.05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,500NIA4,006NINDS722NIGMS242NIMH102VA88NEI53NHLBI49NCI44OD41NIBIB41NIA (the National Institute on Aging) alone funded 70.6% of all 5,675 matched FY2025projects.These 10 institutes account for 5,388 of 5,675 projects; the remaining 287 (5.1%) are spreadacross other, smaller-count institutes not itemized in the source data.

This chart is wider than your screen — drag it sideways, or open the table underneath.

Source: NIH RePORTER, Alzheimer's-tagged projects FY2021–2026, project counts by institute for 2025 (the 10 institutes/centers with the most matched projects that year; a project can be co-funded and counted under its admin institute). FY2025 chosen as the most recent complete fiscal year.
Every number in this chart, as a table
Institute/centerProjectsShare of FY2025 projects
NIA4,00670.6%
NINDS72212.7%
NIGMS2424.3%
NIMH1021.8%
VA881.6%
NEI530.9%
NHLBI490.9%
NCI440.8%
OD410.7%
NIBIB410.7%

Cost per project

The mean NIH award per project has grown across these six years, even as the number of separate projects funded fell after FY2024 — consistent with fewer, larger grants rather than more, smaller ones.

Cost per project: the mean NIH award has grown

From $708.4K in FY2021 to $853.9K in FY2026 (partial).

Mean NIH award per project, by fiscal yearFY2021: $708.4K; FY2022: $735.9K; FY2023: $773.6K; FY2024: $759.7K; FY2025: $851.0K; FY2026 (partial): $853.9K.$0$200.0K$400.0K$600.0K$800.0K$1.0M$708.4KFY2021$735.9KFY2022$773.6KFY2023$759.7KFY2024$851.0KFY2025$853.9KFY2026 (partial)Mean award = that year's summed award amount ÷ records that carried an award amount (not ÷ allmatched projects) — a project with no reported amount is excluded from both sides of thisratio, which changes the number.FY2026 is partial: still in progress on the fetch date.

This chart is wider than your screen — drag it sideways, or open the table underneath.

The average is taken over projects that report a dollar amount, not the full project count for that year — a handful of matched projects each year have no reported award amount and are excluded from this average entirely, on both the numerator and the denominator.
Every number in this chart, as a table
Fiscal yearRecords with an amountMean awardStatus
FY20215,477$708.4KComplete
FY20225,846$735.9KComplete
FY20235,994$773.6KComplete
FY20246,056$759.7KComplete
FY20255,586$851.0KComplete
FY20265,376$853.9KPartial

Does this connect to alzhub's own study library?

alzhub's own research library holds 27,380 studies as of this page's data, but none of their records says who funded the study or under which grant, and this NIH dataset carries no study title or DOI to join against. So this page does not attempt to say how many library studies trace to NIH funding — that link is not in the data, so it is not reported.

Where these numbers come from

Records shown
of the 6 in the data behind this page
Distinct sources
1
Years covered
2021–2026
Basis, all 6
6 measured · 0 modelled · 0 not stated
Data collected
2026-09-27

Most-cited sources on this page

What could make these numbers misleading

This is a phrase-match text search for the exact phrase "Alzheimer's disease" in a project's title, abstract or terms — not NIH's own RCDC (Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization) tag for Alzheimer's/ADRD, which NIH staff compile separately and publish at report.nih.gov. The two are genuine, independent measurements of a related but not identical thing, and may not match. These figures are NIH-reported award amounts — funds committed to a project for that fiscal year — not a record of money actually spent to date on a multi-year grant.

Every figure on this page is read straight out of a file in our data folder; nothing is typed in by hand. You can download the raw data and check any row yourself. This is a summary of published research, not medical advice.