Goal #2
Impactful Research and Creative Scholarship

Photograph of students conducting research

We Will


Double our overall research, scholarship, and creative works and increase their impact while building leadership in focused areas of distinction.

  • Elevate Auburn University’s national and international leadership in strategic areas of emphasis while adapting and responding to changing external needs and internal capabilities.

  • Increase extramural funding by aggressively pursuing grants and contracts to grow scholarly output, graduate-level education, and undergraduate research opportunities.

  • Double levels of scholarly output and creative works through significant growth across disciplines within the university.


Leverage Auburn’s unique strengths through team science and collaboration with local, regional, and national agencies and the private sector to address the most pressing challenges impacting quality of life, economic prosperity, and security.

  • Collaborate with funding agencies and national laboratories to establish new initiatives, centers, and institutes, significantly boosting extramural funding.

  • Emphasize the growth of Auburn’s instructional and research sites in Huntsville, Birmingham, Orange Beach, and other related markets to capture applied research opportunities in defense, aerospace, biotech, environment, and healthcare sectors.

  • Increase interdisciplinary and multisector research activities by engaging scholars and partners around key areas of distinction.


Attract, mentor, reward, and retain exceptional faculty scholars and research professionals of national and international renown who are considered subject matter experts by the public, organizations, industry, government, and academia.

  • Grow the number of research-engaged faculty and full-time research professionals with primary emphases on selected areas of distinction.

  • Recruit faculty scholars of national and international renown.

  • Increase mentoring resources, emphasizing prestigious young investigator programs and large-scale multi-institution funding opportunities.

  • Upgrade existing and build new core research facilities that support research, design, production, measurement, and high-performance computing to allow faculty to compete at the highest levels.

  • Implement new electronic research administration systems and streamline administrative processes.

  • Elevate the visibility of exceptional faculty through dedicated programs that promote faculty for national and international recognition and leadership.


Amplify the translation of research by commercializing novel products and services for economic growth across the state, region, and nation.

  • Significantly increase the value and number of industry-sponsored contracts to fully engage Auburn researchers in translating research into practice.

  • Sustain and develop new public-private partnerships in areas such as advanced manufacturing, space, aviation, defense, healthcare, environment, and workforce development.

  • Redouble efforts to recruit private and public sector partners to Auburn’s Research Park who are actively engaged with our education and research programs.

  • Expand innovation programs and commercialization processes to translate faculty and student research and creative works into economic growth and innovation opportunities.


Communicate our research, scholarship, and creative work achievements to internal and external stakeholders, enhancing Auburn’s stature as a preeminent institution.

  • Create targeted communication strategies highlighting Auburn research at high-profile public events and in high-impact, diversified news outlets.

  • Provide broad-based training and assistance for researchers to enhance the dissemination of their work to the public via various platforms such as presentations, interviews, articles, and publication.

Goal #2: Impactful Research and Creative Scholarship

*Swipe to view full KPI*

Key Performance Indicators I Internal Metric E External Metric N National Metric NM New Metric 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 2026-27
National Science Foundation (NSF) HERD* Survey Ranking 96 TBD TBD
Total R&D Annual Expenditures as Measured on NSF Herd $304.4M $349.3M TBD
Total Extramural Funding (Annual) $240.5M $300.1M TBD
Federally Funded Research $158.2M $194.9M TBD
State Funded Research $3.2M $2.6M TBD
Industry Funded Research $13.3M $11.6M TBD
Scholarship
Articles 8,030 8,282 TBD
Citations 127,469 148,997 TBD
Books 370 365 TBD
Chapters 484 435 TBD
Conference Proceedings 1,422 1,539 TBD
Creative Works -- -- --
Intellectual Property 189 172 TBD
COACHE** Faculty Survey (Biannual)
Support for Research -- 3.27 --
Support for Obtaining Grants -- 3.12 --
Support for Maintaining Grants -- 3.05 --
Auburn-Affiliated Research Centers and Institutes 40 43 58
Average Amount of Research Laboratory Space Per Faculty Member (SF) 279.4 275.4 277.1
Total R&D Expenditures Per SF (reported biannually to NSF) $732 -- --
Research Space Quality - Superior/Satisfactory Condition (reported biannually to NSF) 89% -- 85%
Capital Projects Involving Research Laboratories (Completed) $3.8M $24.9M $2.8M

*HERD: Higher Education Research and Development

**COACHE: Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, comprised of five-point Likert Scale items