Indiana University’s Center on Postsecondary Research released the 2021 Carnegie classifications Thursday, Dec. 16, moving UTSA up from Research 2 to Research 1 and solidifying it as a “very high research activity” doctoral institution.
UTSA’s Office for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise (REDKE) and its institutional research core facilities worked to achieve this recognition for years. The institution came close to reaching R1 distinction last year having spent $134 million on research in fiscal year 2020.
UTSA spent $140 million on research this fiscal year and received 376 research awards worth a total of $168 million. The institution received a one-time CARES Act funding of $102 million, bringing the research award total to $262 million.
The 20 percent increase in doctorate program enrollment between fall 2017 and fall 2021 also helped lift UTSA to the R1 recognition, according to a news release. In 2020 UTSA gave 153 doctorate degrees.
“To earn R1, we maximized support for our faculty, developed transdisciplinary research programs, and expanded our research collaborations with the brightest minds in government, industry and academia,” says REDKE Vice President Bernard Arulanandam in a news release.
The university has led diverse research projects in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, extreme environments and regional water sustainability, biomedical breakthroughs and assessing educational disparities.
It kicked off this year with the launch of its $111 million CyManII cybersecurity research institute. UTSA’s new College of Engineering and Integrated Design also helped push the university to R1 distinction by allowing it to apply for a $50 million grant available through the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.
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