LAWRENCE — New rankings show that the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy was fourth in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding.

The report from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy showed KU received more than $18.4 million in NIH research funding in fiscal 2010.

NIH is the primary source of federal funding for pharmacy schools. Strong support from the federal agency is considered an important part of a pharmacy school’s national reputation, KU officials said.

KU was the only Big 12 institution in the top 10. The University of Texas-Austin and the University of Colorado ranked 13th and 14th, respectively. The University of California-San Francisco was top of the list.

Ken Audus, KU pharmacy dean, said the ranking validated the hard work and research of the school's faculty.

“Although NIH funding rises and falls over time, the KU pharmacy faculty’s continued success when funding rates are down around 10 percent is purely remarkable and a tribute to their cutting-edge creativity and persistence,” Audus said in a prepared statement. “That’s why we remain among the top five programs year after year.”

The School of Pharmacy also ranked in the top 10 for percentage of full-time faculty members who receive NIH grant funding. Forty-five percent of KU’s 40 pharmacy professors received funding in fiscal 2010. Faculty members are maximizing the grants they earn as well, as the school ranked fifth in amount of funding per professor, at more than $489,000.

KU is regularly near the top of the NIH funding rankings; 2010 was the 10th consecutive year the school ranked in the top five. It has been in the top 10 every year since 1995.

In August, the school opened a new 110,000-square-foot facility on the Lawrence campus and an expansion of the program at the School of Medicine-Wichita is scheduled to open soon.