December 2025 – The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has joined the Institute for Research on Innovation & Science (IRIS), a national consortium of leading research universities dedicated to using data to understand and demonstrate the public value of research investments.
IRIS, housed at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, maintains an IRB-approved data repository to collect and analyze research expenditure data from its member institutions. This data is used to generate university-specific and aggregate reports that illustrate the economic and workforce impact of research funding.
Through its membership, MUSC will receive tailored reports showcasing how its research enterprise contributes to industries and regional economies, supports national and in-state vendors, and impacts the career trajectories of research staff and trainees. Additionally, MUSC researchers will gain free access to IRIS UMETRICS, a de-identified research dataset that includes transaction-level information on over $192 billion in sponsored research funding across more than 100 campuses nationwide. The dataset, released biannually, has been used in publications of numerous books and peer-reviewed articles.
“As MUSC expands its reach, we have a unique opportunity to advance our mission not only in South Carolina, but across the nation,” said Timothy Stemmler, vice president for research at MUSC. “Through our partnership with IRIS, we can showcase how our research improves lives and fuels economic growth, reinforcing the value of academic medicine.”
Founded in 2015, IRIS membership includes both public and private universities throughout the United States. “We are pleased to welcome the Medical University of South Carolina to our effort to build a high-quality data resource that is ‘of, by, and for’ higher education institutions,” said IRIS Executive Director Jason Owen-Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. “Now more than ever, it’s essential that universities be able to identify and share the many ways people, communities, and businesses in South Carolina and throughout the country benefit from the research work done at MUSC and institutions like it.”
IRIS also produces aggregate reports that highlight the collective impact of research universities. The All IRIS Spending Report for Fiscal Year 2024, released in February, revealed that consortium members contributed over $3.2 billion to the national economy through research-related purchases, benefiting 436 congressional districts. Members have used IRIS reports to communicate the economic and social impacts of research-related spending to university leadership, the public, and policymakers.
About IRIS
The Institute for Research on Innovation & Science (IRIS) was established in 2015 with initial support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Ongoing funding comes from member contributions and externally sponsored projects. IRIS was created to expand the Universities Measuring the EffecTs of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Science (UMETRICS) initiative, developed in collaboration with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. IRIS is anchored by an IRB-approved repository housed at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization.
For more information, visit iris.isr.umich.edu or contact [email protected].