“The College is the beating heart of IU Bloomington, and virtually every day our faculty and researchers are working on leading-edge scholarship that serves to benefit individuals, our state, country, and wider society in countless ways,” said Rick Van Kooten, Executive Dean of the College and Professor of Physics. “It is critical that our faculty and research enterprise are well resourced, and that we are highly conscientious stewards of research funding as we work to discover new knowledge, expand human understanding, and improve people’s lives.”
External research grants to the College and IU come from numerous sources, ranging from private, non-profit, and commercial institutions and foundations, to public funding sources, such as the National Institues for Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Defense, as examples. As a leading Research 1 (R1) university, IU has earned its reputation as a world-renowned research institution, from collaborating with NASA, to search for life on Mars, to developing a vaccine for rotavirus-norovirus in infants. (Learn more about ongoing research at the College.)
In the past five years, over $50 million in grant funding supported departmental research in the arts, humanities, and the social sciences at the College, and more than $275 million in research funding supported discovery in departments across the natural and mathematical sciences.
The College is comprised of more than 70 academic departments and programs, and 50-plus research centers, and is also home to three professional schools: The Media School, the Hamilton-Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design.
While research grants are targeted to specific projects, such as a recent National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute project, or a recent U.S. Defense Language and National Security Education Office grant that supported a language translation project during the war in Ukraine, these grants do not provide broader funding for things like student financial aid or ongoing academic operations.
Fortunately, IU provides students generous financial aid, a student-centered MoneySmarts program, and lower tuition for in-state students that makes attending college more affordable.
For example, 61 percent of the members of the IU Bloomington undergraduate class of 2023 graduated with no student debt.
In addition, for alumni and others who seek to support research, teaching, and student success in the College and IU, the College’s Advancement office and the IU Foundation offer many ways to engage and create lasting and positive impacts on the Bloomington campus and beyond.
More information about research and creative activity at IU’s campuses is available online.
