This year, Notre Dame continued to witness the results of investments we have been making for more than a decade to grow and strengthen Notre Dame’s research and scholarship programs. While some may focus on the $40 million increase in research grant funding we received during this past fiscal year, the real significance of this increase lies in its breadth and depth across our Colleges, Schools, centers, and institutes. Moreover, the increase represents significant growth across our existing sponsor base, as well as many new sponsors. Our total, $180.6 million, was significantly more than any previous year – and $100 million more than just 10 years ago.
More importantly, though, is that these grants and awards increasingly align with our Catholic mission to be a powerful means for doing good in the world. From a UNITAID grant to fund field studies around the world on the control of the vectors that carry malaria, to a Lilly Endowment grant that allows us to grow partnerships with excellent local and regional programs in order to make our community stronger right here in the South Bend-Elkhart Region, Notre Dame is continuing to grow its commitment to delivering cutting-edge, globally significant research, scholarship, and creative endeavor both at home and abroad.
We are now translating this dynamic trajectory into another exciting effort: a new high-level vision for the University’s research and scholarship programs. Led by a faculty committee and comprised of over 50 interviews with thought leaders at top universities, government funding agencies, Catholic organizations, and foundations and corporations, we are currently studying and deliberating on the responses, which have been fascinating, at times humbling, and sometimes aspirational beyond our own expectations.
I want to take this opportunity to invite you, the reader, to weigh in. I welcome your thoughts about how research, scholarship, and creative endeavor at Notre Dame should continue to be honed and focused in order to be both distinguished and distinctive. Please write or call.
Bob Bernhard
Vice President for Research
University of Notre Dame
