Research & Creative Achievement Support

UMBC is one of only three universities in Maryland with the Carnegie Classification of Research 1 (or R1) as a doctoral university with very high research activity.

Our commitment to the synergy between engineering, the sciences, the arts and the humanities is what makes our UMBC community unlike any other university.

We perform cutting-edge research that is deeply interdisciplinary at its core and informed by the principle of social responsibility to understand our world and develop new technologies to improve the lives of people in Maryland and of people more broadly. The research and creative achievements of our faculty are a celebration of human potential and human endeavor.

Making an Impact

UMBC junior faculty members have secured 46 NSF CAREER Awards since 1995, including ten over the past five years alone.

Fun fact: UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby received her NSF CAREER Award in 1998, while she was a faculty member at Iowa State University!

This slide presentation provides an overview of UMBC’s special research culture from the perspective of the faculty researchers within our colleges and schools.

Resources for You

At UMBC you will find many resources to support your research at the university-level, at the college-level and within your own department.

The Office of the Vice President for Research & Creative Achievement is a good place to begin when searching for funding opportunities, research education, training and more. You can also find research support that is more specific to your area of study at the many research centers at UMBC.

Are you looking for a research collaborator? Are you interested in learning more about the scholarly expertise of your colleagues? Once you have your UMBC email the first thing you should do is add your name and research interests to our searchable database of UMBC Faculty Experts.

Each college also has resources available for faculty researchers:

• College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS)
• College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS)
• College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT)

If you are a new researcher on campus, please contact UMBC’s Environmental Safety and Health to schedule a meeting to discuss safety resources, policies, roles, and expectations. Click here for new researcher resources that will help to facilitate safe and compliant research.

In addition, UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn (AOK) Library has many resources to support your scholarship. Subject Librarians are available to answer questions about the Library’s resources and assist with in-depth research. The Library can also obtain materials for you that are not held by UMBC or within catalogUSMAI. Do you need a quiet place to work? Reserve a Library study room for your use for the duration of a semester.

Faculty who engage in archival work will also want to avail themselves of the astonishingly rich resources in our area, including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the George Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins, the Folger Shakespeare Library and many more.