Here, We Do High-Impact Research

Research universities push the frontiers of knowledge. As knowledge grows, we all use it in ways that are both intentional and surprising. At Texas, we focus on high-impact research that will create a healthier and safer future.

The ‘Moonshots’ of Our Time

The university has launched campus-wide “grand challenges” that combine intellectual firepower from widely diverse disciplines to attack problems in new and creative ways. Planet Texas 2050 examines the challenges of rapid population growth in Texas and what it means for water, electricity, and transportation. Whole Communities—Whole Health is developing a community-centered approach to learning about health factors such as sleep, air quality, and emotional and social wellbeing. Good Systems is striving to embed ethics and prosocial values in the design of artificial intelligence.

The Texas Advantage

ut mcdonald observatory giant magellan telescope

Among UT’s unique advantages in research, it is home to some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, used to study weather emergencies, the spread of disease, and thousands of other areas. UT is helping build the largest optical telescope on earth, the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.

Big Science with Big Partners

Texas Advanced Computing Center rendering of big data

UT attracts more than $650 million a year in research grants and contracts. In 2017, it won the largest contract in its history when the U.S. Navy awarded Applied Research Laboratories at UT a contract worth as much as $1.1 billion over 10 years to improve national security. Texas is home to one of just five University Affiliated Research Centers that have long-term strategic relationships with the Navy. Faculty members and research staff are also partnering with the U.S. Army Futures Command, now based in Austin.

What does it mean to be human?

professor and students in UT Austin classroom

Texas does groundbreaking research across the humanities and social sciences, like psychology, sociology, and No. 1-ranked Latin American studies — helping us better understand who we are, how we got here, and where we’re headed.

Finding Energy Solutions

Texas is unlocking oil and gas resources that have revitalized America’s energy sector. We’re developing the next-generation of high-efficiency batteries. And we’re leading America’s mission to find new forms of energy frozen in the ocean depths.