Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968. It has over 32,000 students and is classified as having very high research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. In the fiscal year 2010, VCU was awarded over $82 million in NIH research funding, the second highest amount among universities in the state of Virginia. VCU's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the VCU Rams. They are members of the Colonial Athletic Association.