Contact: Kristin Palm | [email protected] | 313-593-5542
Based on a significant growth in research activity, the University of Michigan-Dearborn has earned a “Research 2 (R2)” designation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education. UM-Dearborn is one of only five schools in Michigan with the R2 designation, which indicates “high spending and doctorate production.”
UM-Dearborn has an explicit mission to support diverse sections of the economy through its research, with an emphasis on work that serves the common good. Research productivity is typically measured by research expenditures, and the university has increased those expenditures by more than 100% since 2022. Primary areas of research include mobility, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, energy systems, AI and biomedicine.
“As a regional public university, the University of Michigan-Dearborn emphasizes practical research, often driven by collaboration with industry and community partners, to directly address pressing needs in our region, state and broader society,” said Armen Zakarian, UM-Dearborn’s Vice Provost for Research. “This designation will bolster our efforts to continue to grow that enterprise, with direct benefits for the people of southeast Michigan and our state, as well as nationally and internationally.”
The growth stems from UM-Dearborn’s increasing ability to recruit and retain top-tier faculty, who not only bring their research findings into their classrooms but involve students at all levels — undergraduate through doctoral — in their projects, Zakarian said. “Our students directly benefit from our research endeavors through enhanced instruction and hands-on experiences with faculty who are leaders in their fields,” Zakarian stated. “They then graduate ready to enter Michigan’s high skills workforce.”
UM-Dearborn secured over $12 million in research awards in fiscal year 2024, primarily through federal grants. Recent federally funded projects include development of a system to combat counterfeit vehicle electronics, exploring new ways acids in the body might help fight deadly diseases like Legionnaires and tuberculosis, examining the cause of EV battery fires, advancing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and rooting out AI-generated deepfakes.
The Carnegie Classification is considered the leading framework for recognizing and describing U.S. higher education institutions. The next Research Activity Designation update is scheduled for 2028. The 2025 designations were announced earlier today.
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