page_title: Boston University
section_title: Research
hierarchical_section_title: Boston University / Academics / Research
caption_attribution_description: English: BU Sponsored Program Awards FY1971-2016
context_page_description: Boston University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but maintains its historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church.
  Founded in 1839 by Methodists, its original campus was in Newbury, Vermont before moving to Boston in 1867. The university now has over 3,900 faculty members and nearly 33,000 students, and is one of Boston's largest employers. It offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, doctorates, and medical, dental, business, and law degrees through 18 schools and colleges on two urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston's Fenway-Kenmore and Allston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is located in Boston's South End neighborhood.
  BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education and the Association of American Universities. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity".
context_section_description: In FY2016, the University reported in $368.9 million in sponsored research, comprising 1,896 awards to 722 faculty investigators. Funding sources included the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Department of Defense, the European Commission of the European Union, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The University's research enterprise encompasses dozens of fields, but its primary focus currently lies in seven areas: Data Science, Engineering Biology, Global Health, Infectious Diseases, Neuroscience, Photonics, and Urban Health.
  The University's strategic plan calls for the removal of barriers between previously siloed departments, schools, and fields. The result has been an increasing emphasis by the University on interdisciplinary work and the creation of multidisciplinary centers such as the Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE), a $140 million, nine-story research facility that is expected to bring together life scientists, engineers, and physicians from the Medical and Charles River Campuses; the Institute for Health Systems Innovation & Policy, a cross-campus initiative combining business, health law, medicine, and public policy; a neurophotonics center that will combine photonics and neuroscience to study the brain; and the Software and Application Innovation Lab, where technologists work with colleagues in the arts and humanities and together develop digital research tools.
  The strategic plan also encouraged research collaborations with industry and government partners. In 2016, as part of a broadbased effort to solve the critical problem of antibiotic resistance, the US Department of Health & Human Services selected the Boston University School of Law (LAW)—and Kevin Outterson, a BU professor of law—to lead a $350 million trans-Atlantic public-private partnership to foster the preclinical development of new antibiotics and antimicrobial rapid diagnostics and vaccines.
  That same year, BU researcher Avrum Spira joined forces with Janssen Research & Development and its Disease Interception Accelerator group. Spira—a professor of medicine, pathology and laboratory medicine, and bioinformatics—has spent his career at BU pursuing a better, and earlier, way to diagnose pulmonary disorders and cancers, primarily using biomarkers and genomic testing. In 2015, under a $13.7 million Defense Department grant, Spira's eﬀorts to identify which members of the military will develop lung cancer and COPD caught the attention of Janssen, part Johnson & Johnson. They are investing $10.1 million to collaborate with Spira's lab with the hope that his discoveries—and potential therapies—could then apply to the population at large.
caption: Sponsored Program Awards FY1971-2016
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