Rice University

What it reported doing in 2024

Basic scientific research and training and other sponsored educational programs. From its inception, Rice has been dedicated, in the words of its first president Edgar Odell Lovett,"As much to investigation as to instruction to providing a setting in which faculty would join the "pleasures of teaching" with "the privileges of research." The university has realized much of this ambition with distinction in undergraduate education and research excellence across many disciplines. Rice is home to more than 40 interdisciplinary research centers, institutes and consortia, and research is a fundamental part of the undergraduate experience. The university has produced Fulbright Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Watson Fellows, Mellon Fellows, National Science Foundation Fellows, and Rhodes Scholars among other honors and awards. The university has a very high level of research activity for its size, with $205 million in sponsored research funding in 2024. Rice is noted for its applied science programs in the fields of artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, signal processing, space science and nanotechnology. It was ranked in the top 10% of institutions based on citations per faculty per academic analytics data. Rice has 683 full-time and 196 part-time faculty members. Ninty-nine percent of full-time faculty hold Ph.D.s or equivalent terminal degrees in their field. Because of their pioneering research, Rice faculty have been honored with numerous prestigious awards and accolades over the years. In 1996, Rice professors Richard Smalley and Robert Curl (now deceased) received the Nobel Prize for their discovery of a unique molecular form of carbon that heralded the new era of nanotechnology research. In 2011, Richard Tapia, a Rice mathematician and longtime champion of diversity In U.S. education, received the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama for his work in optimization theory and numerical analysis, as well as for his mentoring of women and under-represented minorities in the fields of mathematics and science. As of February 2018, Rice had 12 faculty members in the National Academy of Engineering, 10 in the National Academy of Science, four in the Institute of Medicine, and six in the National Humanities Center. In 2016, Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum won a prestigious Macarthur Fellowship. Rice's commitment to scientific research can be seen in the construction of the Bioscience Research Collaborative, a 488,000- square-foot facility where scientists and educators from Rice and other Texas Medical Center institutions work together on research that benefits human medicine and health, and the Brockman Hall for Physics, a state-of-the-art 110,000 square-foot facility that includes vibration and noise controlled underground laboratories. Rice also has an active research agenda in the social sciences and humanities. The Baker Institute for Public Policy is one of the leading nonpartisan public policy think tanks in the country and conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues. The Humanities Research Center fosters international and interdisciplinary connections with workshops and large conferences. Focus areas include questions of energy and energy transitions, the Civic Humanists program, and the Our Americas Archive Partnership.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 89.4%; rating input score 89
• Program expense ratio: 72.1%; rating input score 72
• Fundraising efficiency: $12.31 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Pass
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
  • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
  • Requires narrative reports: Fail
  • Conducts field audits: Fail
  • May suspend future funding: Fail
  • Requires financial reports: Fail
  • Conducts site visits: Fail
  • Requires grant agreements: Fail
  • May require repayment: Fail
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 41st percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 16.3%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.16; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 2%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings