Notre Dame tops $222 million in research awards, breaking previous records
The University of Notre Dame received $222.7 million in research award funding for fiscal year 2021. This is more than $42 million over the previous record and the first time the University has surpassed the $200 million mark.
“In the face of a most difficult year, Notre Dame’s faculty and staff continued to actively pursue scholarship opportunities that reflect our mission to be a force for good in the world, both in the creation and application of knowledge,” said Robert J. Bernhard, vice president for research and professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering. “One indicator of the increasing competitiveness of our programs is indicated by the growth of research funding awards received by the University. We also believe that the breadth and depth of this year’s portfolio of funded programs indicate that the type of programs funded this year will be sustainable into the future.”
Among some of the largest new awards to the University were:
- A nearly $8 million award from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Pulte Institute for Global Development in the Keough School of Global Affairs to conduct research that strengthens education systems in low- and middle-income countries by working with USAID missions, local scholars and higher education institutions.
- A $6 million grant from the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership to the Office of the Provost for the AnalytiXIN University Talent Recruitment program, which together with Indiana University and Purdue University will drive growth in AI and analytics in Indiana.
- More than $4 million to the Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory from Carrier Global Corporation to research new technologies for improving the efficiency of commercial refrigerant compressors, including new compressor designs and alternative refrigerants.
- A $4 million award from Menard, Inc. to the Notre Dame International Security Center (NDISC) in the College of Arts and Letters to facilitate the NDISC’s continuing research efforts to broaden and deepen the study of grand strategy, including how the United States and other great powers use military means to advance their foreign policy objectives.
- A $3 million grant from the W.M. Kellogg Foundation to the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child Haiti within the Institute for Educational Initiatives to continue and expand early-grade literacy and social and emotional learning programs, improve early childhood development programming and create sustainable change by leveraging three systems that most directly affect children's lives: the home, the school and the church.
Faculty and staff from the other colleges and schools, as well as centers, institutes and core facilities, contributed to the record-breaking total. However, STEM researchers at Notre Dame experienced some of the strongest growth, with the College of Engineering growing by $22 million and the College of Science by $16 million in the last year alone. Contributing to this total were the following new grants:
- More than $3 million from the Department of Defense to the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science for the Remote Emerging Disease Intelligence NETwork (REDI-NET), which aims to address surveillance needs to effectively detect, predict and contain potentially emergent diseases or infections that are naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans.
- Nearly $2 million from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering to build data-driven supports for increasing access and healthy food choices in low-income neighborhoods.
“These awards represent an important milestone for the University of Notre Dame. They also reflect the extraordinary vision of our faculty and their scholarly creativity and leadership,” said Marie Lynn Miranda, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at the University of Notre Dame. “It is our honor to provide a home for these research endeavors as our faculty advance the knowledge frontier and develop solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing our world.”
Approximately 54 percent of the research awards came from federal funding, while 27 percent came from foundations or other sponsors and 19 percent came from industry. Overall, Notre Dame’s externally funded research had a global footprint of 52 awards received for research in 34 different countries, totaling $37.8 million.
To explore more about external research funding at Notre Dame, please visit research.nd.edu/about/facts-figures.
