Maintaining a strong, diversified portfolio of research and sponsored programs is a UMBC priority. In FY 2012, contract-and-grant awards totaled $78 million. NIH, NSF, and NASA continue to be UMBC’s three heaviest supporters. The university has recently received several major awards, including $2.6 million in funding to Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), which has played a prominent role in UMBC’s emergence as a leader in environmental sciences. The Center for Aging Studies received a $1.37 Million NIH Grant for Diabetes Research. The Department of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering received a five-year, $2.5-million grant from NSF to support the production of undergraduate and graduate degrees through cybersecurity courses and mentored research, including research at partner organizations – from Northrop Grumman, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab, and Convergent Technologies to the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Institute and PaRaBaL (an industry leader in mobile device security).

Recently UMBC and the Northrop Grumman Foundation announced they are partnering to launch the UMBC Cyber Scholars program, which is to be housed in the university’s new Cybersecurity Center, and run in partnership with the UMBC Center for Women in Technology (CWIT). The Northrop Grumman Foundation will provide a $1 million grant to launch the program. Other substantial awards include a $600,000 grant to CWIT, which brings the Center’s portfolio to more than $800,000; a $980,000 award from GE Healthcare to the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology; a $640,000 grant from Europharma to UMBC’s new Department of Marine Biotechnology, and two new grants from the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene to the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (MIPAR) for more than $1.5 million.

Other ongoing awards remained substantial and reflect the strong relationships UMBC has built over time with external partners, from NSF and NIH to the U.S. Department of Education, National Security Agency, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). These partnerships not only produce funding and major research-and-training opportunities for faculty and students, but also contribute to the university’s rising national reputation. For example, UMBC’s Department of Chemical, Biochemical & Environmental Engineering attracted more than $1.2 million in sponsored programs in FY 2012, and the Hilltop Institute, focused on health policy analysis and research, increased its external support by more than a million dollars this year.