OUR RESEARCH CHANGES LIVES
Source: https://umd.edu/research
Research
OUR RESEARCH CHANGES LIVES
At UMD, brilliant scientists and scholars come together to spark new ideas, pursue important discoveries and tackle humanity's grand challenges—impacting lives in our communities and across the globe.
OUR WORK IN ACTION
A POWERFUL IMPACT
TAKING ON GRAND CHALLENGES
The Grand Challenges Grants Program has invested over $30 million in institutional funds to support cross-campus initiatives and projects designed to accelerate solutions to humanity’s grand challenges within our communities and around the globe.
We Are Groundbreakers
Division of Research
Top-Ranked and Widely Recognized
The robust UMD research enterprise stands among the most impactful in the country, spanning more than 4,500 faculty across 12 schools and colleges committed to creating new knowledge and putting it to work to benefit the state, nation and world.
Learn about the Division of Research
$1.5B
in combined research expenditures with the University of Maryland, Baltimore (FY24)
#9
among U.S. public institutions for research and development spending
National Science Foundation's Higher Education Research and Development Survey
#10
among U.S. public institutions for patents awarded in 2025, along with other USM institutions
National Academy of Inventors and Intellectual Property Owners Association
Dynamic Institutes and Centers
In more than 150 centers and institutes campuswide, leading experts are driving AI innovation, building safer communities, creating life-saving therapies for diseases, finding new ways to enrich our lives with art, developing new answers to energy challenges and more.
Undergraduate Research
The Office of Undergraduate Research inclusively empowers UMD students and campus partners, including faculty, staff and research engagement programs, to engage in inquiry, creative activity and scholarship. It provides a range of resources to help undergraduates start or advance their research experiences.
Graduate Research
UMD graduate students have limitless opportunities to explore their ideas. The university’s location in a global center of science, politics, business and culture provides unparalleled access to national and research and policy institutions, and performing and visual arts—all testbeds for scholarly exploration.
Graduate Scholarships & Funding
Latest Research Stories
Partnering for Progress
UMD extends its reach and deepens its impact by building and maintaining partnerships with firms developing cutting-edge technologies and with government at all levels, including its home of Prince George's County, the state of Maryland and many federal agencies based only a few miles away in the nation's capital.
A $30 million investment at UMD supports projects that address issues including food insecurity, wildfires and literacy.
Find collaborators, protect your research, apply for grants, meet investors and get advice to maximize your idea’s impact.