Office of the Vice Chancellor for
Research

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a unique breadth of research expertise, with world-renowned strengths in the arts, agriculture, business, the humanities, and the social sciences, as well as top-ranked programs in the natural sciences and engineering. Many of the technologies that enabled the modern electronic era were developed at the U of I, and year in and year out, we are among the top universities in NSF-funded research and development expenditures. Today, we’re building on that tradition, working to address society’s most pressing problems by doing what we do best—interdisciplinary research that drives positive change in our communities, our state, our nation, and the world.

Our focus

Our researchers are exploring big-picture questions that can change lives, including work in:

The programs and infrastructure to support our mission

Notable programs, infrastructure, and people support this work:

Collaborative Endeavors

• Innovative partnerships and collaborations, including the Abbott-funded Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory; the Illinois–Sandia Research Partnership; the Health Care Engineering Systems Center the HATHI Trust Research Center; and the Advanced Digital Sciences Center
• The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, which is leading “Humanities Without Walls”—a consortium of 15 humanities institutes supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• Six Title VI Centers in International Studies, which provide support for interdisciplinary research in a number of disciplines critical to understanding languages and cultures
• The Illinois Applied Research Institute, which partners with companies and federal agencies to solve large-scale problems
• Agricultural Research and Education Centers, state-wide field laboratories to test and demonstrate practical applications of agricultural research

Pathbreaking Research

• The $100 M Grainger Engineering Breakthroughs Initiative, a gift which builds on existing strengths in interdisciplinary research and education leadership with an emphasis on bioengineering and Big Data
• One of the largest Area Studies Programs in the nation (with 16 specialized programs), a source of scholarly innovation and diversity
• The Morrow Plots, the oldest agronomic experiment fields in the United States—founded in 1876 and still in use today
• One of the country’s top university Research Parks
• A College of Engineering that is consistently ranked as one of the top 5 in the world
• Faculty in humanities, arts, and social sciences who are recognized for their scholarship through prestigious awards, including American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowships, NEH fellowships and grants (5 Fellowships in 2014), and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships (5 in 2014)
• The Family Resiliency Center, a national leader in transdisciplinary research on issues such as childhood obesity, food insecurity, and healthy eating

World-Class Resources

• The University Library, one of the world's most comprehensive academic libraries
• The National Center for Supercomputing Applications, whose Blue Waters supercomputer is among the most powerful in the world
• XSEDE, a nationwide, virtual system to share computing resources, data, and information
• The Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory, where various plant and plant co-products (biomass) are tested for their suitability for bioprocessing to value-added products
• The Illinois Plant Breeding Center, genomics in action for food, feed, fuel, and flora
• The Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans, a national leader in research, services, and support for veterans with disabilities
• The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the Coordinated Science Lab, and the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Lab, world-renowned interdisciplinary research institutes
• The Prairie Research Institute, with more than 1,000 research scientists and staff pursuing applied natural and cultural resources research of more than $80 million