Robert W Woodruff Health Sciences Center Fund

More than half of the annual funding distributed by the Woodruff Fund was designated to support the programs and facilities of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. Winship is Georgia's only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. Woodruff Fund grants were used to recruit and retain faculty for dual appointments at Emory's medical school and the Winship Cancer Institute and to fund significant faculty research projects in cancer prevention, detection and treatment. More than one-third of the funds dedicated to support programs were used to support Winship's clinical trials program. Other significant allocations of program funds were made for information technology and data management, support of Winship's biostatistics and bioinformatics programs, and for supporting Winship's administration, shared resources, and its NCI cancer center support grant. Almost half of the distributions to Winship are allocated to pay for facilities.In March 2024, the Woodruff Fund made a multi-year commitment to fund an extraordinary effort to grow Winship with a focus on improving the patient experience and better aligning research programs with patient care. Consistent with that commitment, the Woodruff Fund agreed to redesignate to the "Bigger, Better Winship" plan some funds previously paid to support Woodruff Health Sciences Center facilities and to increase distributions from the Woodruff Fund to Emory in future fiscal years. Accomplishments from this investment will be reported starting with next year's return.

The Woodruff Fund oversees a separate investment account intended to grow research capacity for the Emory + Children's Pediatric Research Institute. In this fiscal year, the Fund disbursed $6 million toward a multi-year plan to recruit pediatric investigators focused on childhood cancer, cardiac and brain medicine, Sickle Cell disease, and Cystic Fibrosis.

Woodruff Fund grants supported strategic academic and research initiatives in the medical institutions that make up Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center. Significant support during this fiscal year was directed to Emory's School of Medicine to recruit a new leader for the school's Pathology Department and to support programs in the Office of Student Success. Significant new investments were made in a comprehensive digital transformation plan for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, a new Global Diabetes Research Center and in Emory's Center for New Medicines. The Woodruff Fund also invested in plans to develop maternal health programs in partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine and Grady Health System. Additional support was provided for strategic investments in Emory's Rollins School of Public Health; the Yerkes Primate Research Center; the Georgia Clinical and Translational Sciences Alliance; and Emory's Immunology and Vaccine Research Center. A significant portion of the distributions to Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center are used to pay for facilities, including Emory's biomedical research facilities and School of Medicine building.