Tracking the R1 Chase: NC A&T Reaches Goal as Morgan State Hits $104 Million in Research Funding

Tracking the R1 Chase: NC A&T Clears Both Thresholds as Morgan State Surpasses $100 Million in Research Funding

In February 2025, Howard University regained the Carnegie R1 designation, the highest recognition a research university can receive in the United States. Howard is the only HBCU to have ever held it. But two other institutions are now making serious runs at joining that company. North Carolina A&T State University has already met both of Carnegie’s targets, and Morgan State University just posted its largest research funding year in history.

Data Driven HBCU has built interactive research dashboards tracking all 14 HBCUs with Carnegie R1 or R2 designations. The numbers tell a story of real, measurable progress. NC A&T’s most recent data shows the university has crossed both of Carnegie’s thresholds for the first time. Morgan’s dashboard shows a school that is well past the research spending mark and closing in on the doctorate count. The next time Carnegie updates its rankings, expected in 2028, both schools could be in contention for a designation that would be historic for the HBCU community.

What R1 Actually Means

Carnegie’s research classification is essentially a national scorecard for how seriously a university invests in research and trains the next generation of researchers. The designation that matters most is R1, which stands for “Very High Research Activity.” To get there, a university has to clear two bars at the same time: spending at least $50 million a year on research, and graduating at least 70 students with research-based doctoral degrees in a year.

That second number is more specific than it might sound. Carnegie only counts what are called research doctorates, which require students to produce original research, such as a Ph.D. in biology or engineering. Medical degrees, law degrees, and pharmacy degrees don’t count, even though those programs are academically rigorous. The focus is on research that produces new scientific knowledge.

Carnegie doesn’t update these rankings every year. The 2025 edition, announced in February, looked at spending and graduation data from fiscal years 2021 through 2023. The key point about how the evaluation works is that it is not an average. Each year in the window must independently satisfy both criteria. A school must cross the $50 million spending threshold and the 70-doctorate threshold in each year being evaluated to qualify. That’s the cycle where Howard regained its R1 status, posting just under $85 million in research spending and awarding 96 research doctorates in its most recent year. The next update, expected in 2028, will look at data from fiscal years 2024 through 2026. Each of those three years must independently clear both bars.

The 13 HBCUs That Hold R2 Right Now

Below R1 sits R2, which stands for “High Research Activity.” It is a legitimate and meaningful designation in its own right, recognizing universities that produce significant doctoral research but have not yet met both R1 thresholds in any evaluation year. For HBCUs, holding R2 is itself a relatively recent achievement for most of these institutions, and it is the platform from which the R1 chase is being run.

In the 2025 Carnegie cycle, 13 HBCUs received or maintained R2 status: Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Florida A&M University, Prairie View A&M University, Delaware State University, Jackson State University, Tennessee State University, Virginia State University, Hampton University, South Carolina State University, Clark Atlanta University, Southern University and A&M College, and Texas Southern University. Howard University stands as the only HBCU with an R1 designation. Data Driven HBCU tracks all 14 schools in one place in our Research Hub.

Why the Designation Changes Everything

R1 is more than a ranking. For universities chasing it, the designation is a door-opener in ways that reach far beyond prestige.

Federal research agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, direct the vast majority of their large-scale grant funding to research-intensive institutions. R1 status signals to grant reviewers that a university has the infrastructure, the faculty, and the track record to execute complex, multi-year research projects. That signal matters in competitive funding environments, and it compounds over time: more grants fund more researchers, who produce more findings, who attract more grants.

The private sector pays close attention to Carnegie classifications as well. Companies looking to partner with universities on applied research, funded studies, or joint development projects use R1 status as a first filter. Those sponsored research agreements generate direct revenue and often grant universities a share of any resulting patents. Technology transfer, the process of licensing university-developed inventions to industry, becomes significantly more active at R1 institutions. For HBCUs, which have historically been underrepresented in that ecosystem, R1 status opens the door to a revenue stream that most have never had meaningful access to.

The designation also reshapes a university’s ability to recruit. Top faculty researchers choose institutions where they can pursue serious work, and R1 status signals that the resources and peer environment are there to support it. Graduate students, who often do the hands-on research that drives an institution’s output, make similar calculations. The classification creates a reinforcing cycle: the designation attracts talent, talent generates research, and research generates the data that sustains the designation.

NC A&T: Both Bars Cleared

When Carnegie evaluated A&T for the 2025 rankings, the university came up short in each of the three years examined. On the doctorate side, A&T awarded 64, 69, and 68 research doctorates in FY2021 through FY2023, each year falling 2 to 6 short of 70. On the spending side, research expenditures were $40.8 million in FY2021 and $47.9 million in FY2022, both below the $50 million threshold. Then in FY2023, spending jumped to $62.3 million, clearing the bar. But that same year, doctorates came in at 68, two short. So close on spending in FY2022, so close on doctorates in FY2023, but no year independently cleared both at the same time.

Fiscal year 2024 was the year everything came together. A&T recorded $81.8 million in research expenditures and awarded 72 research doctorates, clearing both Carnegie thresholds in the same year for the first time. For Carnegie 2028, FY2025 and FY2026 will also each need to clear both bars on their own. The full four-year spending and doctorate trend for NC A&T is available in our research dashboard.

The university acknowledged this milestone directly. When A&T announced its new Ph.D. program in bioengineering on June 8, 2026, the university stated plainly that it “now exceeds criteria for that designation, which it is expected to receive in 2028, making it the first public HBCU to be so classified.”

That bioengineering doctorate is itself a milestone. A&T will be the first HBCU to offer a standalone Ph.D. in the field, continuing a streak that began when A&T launched the first HBCU undergraduate bioengineering program in 2010 and the first master’s program in 2011. The new program focuses on areas like neurotechnology, neural engineering, and cellular and systems engineering, all fields with direct connections to healthcare and biotechnology research.

A&T’s research funding has also held steady despite some real pressure. In fiscal year 2025, the university’s faculty pulled in $96.2 million in research contracts and grants. That came even as the federal government terminated $24 million in research projects at A&T during the same year, part of a broader wave of federal cuts that hit research universities across the country. Over the three years before that, A&T researchers had brought in nearly $350 million in external research support.

Morgan State: Building Both Sides of the Equation

Morgan State is approaching R1 from a different angle than A&T. The Baltimore university has made real strides in its doctoral count in recent years and crossed the research spending threshold for the first time in FY2024. The challenge is consistently getting both numbers above the threshold in the same year.

On the doctorate side, Morgan was ahead of schedule early in the evaluation window. In fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the university graduated 71 and 70 research doctoral students, independently clearing the 70-doctorate bar each year. Then the count dropped: 59 in FY2023 and 62 in FY2024.

On the spending side, Morgan’s research expenditures have grown steadily but were not yet at the R1 level during the 2025 evaluation window. Per the NSF HERD Survey, the same data source Carnegie uses for its classifications, Morgan spent $20.6 million in FY2021, $29.5 million in FY2022, and $43.9 million in FY2023. The university crossed the $50 million threshold for the first time in FY2024, reaching $55.5 million. In fiscal year 2025, Morgan’s sponsored research portfolio reached $104.4 million in total contracts and grants, a new institutional record that signals where the HERD expenditure figures are likely heading in the 2028 evaluation window.

Because each year must satisfy both criteria independently, none of FY2021 through FY2024 has cleared both bars simultaneously. FY2021 and FY2022 had the doctorates but not the spending. FY2023 had neither. FY2024 was the first year spending crossed $50 million, but doctorates (62) were still below 70. For the 2028 Carnegie evaluation, FY2024, FY2025, and FY2026 each must independently meet both the $50 million spending threshold and the 70-research-doctorate threshold. Morgan needs to grow both sides of the equation simultaneously. Morgan State’s full research spending and doctorate history is in our dashboard.

There are signs of real movement. Morgan awarded 60 doctoral degrees at its Spring 2025 commencement and another 34 at its Fall 2025 ceremony in December, for a combined total of 94 doctoral degrees in calendar year 2025. Morgan’s own announcement called that combined total “a milestone that further solidifies Morgan’s progress toward achieving the coveted R1 classification.” At the Spring 2026 commencement, more than 80 additional doctoral candidates received degrees, marking the school’s highest total degree production in its history (nearly 1,900 graduates across all levels in the 2025-26 academic year).

An important distinction: Carnegie counts only research and scholarship doctorates toward the R1 threshold, excluding professional degrees like the Doctor of Social Work. The research doctorate subset of Morgan’s growing doctoral output is the specific number Carnegie will evaluate. Morgan’s FY2024 research doctorate count, the most recent figure in our dashboard, was 62. The trajectory heading into the 2028 evaluation window is trending upward.

Morgan President David K. Wilson has publicly set 2030 as his goal for R1 status, though the university’s own R1 progress page notes it has “positioned itself to achieve the designation sooner than anticipated” given the growth in its research portfolio. Founded in 1867, Morgan is Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University and the only institution in the country whose entire campus has been designated a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

A Coalition Behind the Push

Both A&T and Morgan are founding members of the Association of HBCU Research Institutions (AHRI), which launched on April 29, 2026. The coalition was formed specifically to help HBCUs grow their research programs and, ultimately, increase the number of HBCUs that reach R1 status.

AHRI’s 14 full member institutions include Howard University, which holds the R1 designation it regained in 2025, as well as 13 R2 HBCUs. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore participates as an Affiliate Partner. Wilson serves as AHRI’s inaugural board chairman. Harold L. Martin Sr., chancellor emeritus of North Carolina A&T, was one of the founding collaborators who helped build the organization from the ground up in 2023.

AHRI is housed alongside the Association of American Universities and is backed by a $1 million grant from Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Initiative. Harvard’s research office is also providing direct technical assistance to member institutions. Together, AHRI’s member institutions account for half of all competitively awarded federal research funding that goes to HBCUs.

“The formation of the Association of HBCU Research Institutions represents a decisive step forward, bringing together leading institutions with a unified voice to advance discovery, expand capacity, and confront the complex challenges of our time,” Wilson said at the launch.

The 2028 Carnegie update will be the first real test of whether that momentum has translated into a new designation. For A&T, the data already on the books makes a strong case. For Morgan, the next two years of doctoral production will be the deciding factor. Track all 14 HBCU research programs side by side in the Data Driven HBCU Research Hub.

Update (June 10, 2026): This article has been revised to reflect NSF HERD Survey expenditure data, which is the source Carnegie uses for its Research Activity Designations. An earlier version cited IPEDS Finance figures, which measure institutional research expenses differently. The corrections affect the spending figures cited for both NC A&T and Morgan State across all four fiscal years. The most significant change affects the Morgan State section: HERD data shows Morgan’s research expenditures were $20.6 million (FY2021), $29.5 million (FY2022), $43.9 million (FY2023), and $55.5 million (FY2024), meaning Morgan crossed the $50 million spending threshold for the first time in FY2024, not in prior years as previously stated. The section has been rewritten accordingly. Doctorate counts were not materially affected by the correction.

Research expenditure figures in this article come from the NSF Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, which is the data source Carnegie uses for its Research Activity Designations. HERD figures differ from the research expense line in the IPEDS Finance survey; both are federal data products but they measure R&D activity differently. Doctorate counts reflect only research and scholarship degrees as defined by the IPEDS Completions Survey. Sponsored research totals cited for NC A&T and Morgan State (FY2025) represent contracts and grants awarded, as reported by each institution, and are distinct from HERD expenditure figures.