Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021

Dear UNT Faculty and Staff,

Regardless of the challenges of the global pandemic, UNT has had one of the most productive and transformative years of research in our university's history. Not only are awards — spanning numerous disciplines — up more than 25% with a record-breaking $50 million in new contracts and grants awarded to our researchers, but we also had a dramatic 17% increase in the value of proposals. These efforts are propelling our research engine full steam ahead as evidenced by the 20% increase in our research expenditures. In addition to the increase in awards, the Research Commercial Agreements team created 722 contracts, including a record-setting 35 technology transfer licenses.

These successes are indicative of our innovative research faculty who are on the move and committed to changing their approach and tactics to grantsmanship. We have been very deliberate through a set of efforts to support and expand skills in grant writing for faculty and now Ph.D. students to obtain higher profile grants. In addition, we expanded our workshops for resubmissions focused on NSF CAREER awards as well as NIH awards. UNT significantly increased our grant managers — exclusively tasked to encourage and assist faculty to seek significant large grant efforts — across the colleges and institutes to seven new positions.

This year, we expanded our university-managed core facilities to capitalize on the brainpower to research, execute and commercialize new ideas. We also had another big success with the Texas Legislature — not only did CAAAM receive another $10 million for the next two years, but we received a Tuition Revenue Bond for $113.4 million for a new Science and Technology Research Building that will provide much-needed new state-of-the-art space.

I invite you to read the 2021 Research and Innovation Annual Report detailing these activities and successes of the Division of Research and Innovation. The report outlines the division's mission, core values and key initiatives, as well as highlighting the significant progress our faculty, staff and administrators have made this year, and our direction for the future.

To all of our faculty and staff, I share my sincere thanks. I am incredibly proud of the dedication and perseverance our research community has shown and your contributions to our state and world reinforce UNT's reputation as a Tier One public research university.

Sincerely, 

Mark McLellan
UNT Vice President for Research and Innovation