Updated 1:15 p.m. | Posted 11:53 a.m.

Gov. Mark Dayton wants to fund the hiring of 50 researchers for the University of Minnesota Medical School over the next eight years.

The plan is part of a two-year, $30 million proposal aimed at restoring the medical school to national prominence. It ranked 30th last year in federal research funding, a key indicator of success. Dayton says the school was ranked eighth in 1968.

"While it has deserved prominence in many areas, including clinical practice, from a research standpoint it's not in the top eight anymore, and it should be, and we need it to be," Dayton told reporters Wednesday.

Medical school officials say more researchers would bring in more research money.

Dr. Brooks Jackson, dean of the medical school, says he'd like to see it in the top 20 within five years and the top 15 within a decade.

Dayton's proposal would fund half the number of researchers suggested by the governor's medical school review panel.

State Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, chairman of the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee, said he was not opposed to the governor's proposal.

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Dayton proposes $30M to boost U medical school