Office of Research & Innovation

Annual Report

2024-2025 Academic Year
About

Message from the EVPRI

The Office of Research and Innovation continues to advance Drexel University’s mission of research, scholarship, and creative activities and the societal impact that they generate.  This past year brought significant challenges, including disruptions stemming from changes in federal support for research. Despite these uncertainties, our faculty, students, and partners demonstrated remarkable adaptability and commitment, enabling us to keep pace with prior years’ outcomes and maintain momentum across our research enterprise. 

Importantly, these changes have also opened new opportunities—prompting us to explore alternative funding sources, strengthen industry partnerships, and accelerate innovation in emerging fields. This report highlights achievements that reflect both resilience and forward-thinking—from groundbreaking research initiatives and interdisciplinary collaborations to sustained levels of sponsored funding and innovation. 

As we look ahead, we remain committed to supporting research excellence, expanding opportunities for collaboration, and ensuring that Drexel continues to lead in addressing the most pressing challenges of our time.  

Aleister Saunders' Signature
Aleister Saunders
Professor and Executive Vice Provost for Research & Innovation

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Milestones

Drexel Applied Innovation
As the University’s tech transfer office, Drexel Applied Innovation’s mission is to expand the impact of Drexel research through comprehensive tech transfer. 
Core Facilities
Core Facilities
Research Core Facilities at Drexel University promote discovery, creativity, and impact by providing access to advanced instrumentation and services, expertise on experimental design and data analysis, and technical training to Drexel students, researchers, faculty, and external academic and industry partners.
Research Business Operations and Technology 
The RBOT team's mission is to provide the foundation for operational and cultural excellence within the ORI.
Research Compliance & Regulatory Affairs
The Regulatory Affairs & Research Compliance team comprises several programs, including HRPP-IRB, IACUC, Radiation Safety, IBC, Quality Assurance, and Research Compliance (Export Control, COI, and Research Integrity).
Sponsored Programs
The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) is responsible for all pre-award and non-financial post-award management of sponsored activities that have resulted from a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement.

Investing in Research Resources & Tools

Scholar support through data tools, equipment, and affiliations.
Access to Data

Federal Research Statistical Data Centers provide qualified researchers access to extensive non-public micro-data from federal agencies, enabling advanced research across disciplines like economics, sociology, medicine, and criminology.

Data Management

Drexel University has an enterprise license for LabArchives electronic research notebook (ERN) services for use by its faculty, researchers, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students in performing or learning research activities.

Memberships/Affiliations

Academic, industry, and government are working together to solve societies most pressing current and future challenges. Through memberships and affiliations, we are facilitating collaborative research and development opportunities for faculty and students.

Supporting and Recognizing Research Excellence

Committees, funding, and awards related to research and innovation.
Drexel Main Building
Internal Committees
SSHRC scholars engage in activities that support different aspects of the research process, including writing retreats to support grant and publication writing, quarterly social events to support interdisciplinary networking, and much more.
Community Driven Research Day
Seed Funding
The Office of Research & Innovation financially supports a variety of seed funding opportunities that stimulate and support the development of new research projects, the expansion of existing projects, as well as recognition of outstanding research performance.
2024-2025 Research News Highlights
“Exploring MXene applications at a greater scale will certainly expand the capabilities of this family of materials and offer vital opportunities to people in need of more drinking water and address crucial clinical research and medical diagnostics needs. This effort is timely and further emphasizes the importance of the work we are doing with MXenes.”
Yury Gogotsi, PhD
Director, A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute
water droplet
Drexel to Lead $5 Million Multinational Effort to Produce MXene Materials for Water Desalination and Medical Diagnostics
Drexel University is embarking on a three-year, $5-million multinational collaboration to produce MXene nanomaterials. The project, which is a collaboration with Kalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, the University of Padua in Italy and the Kyiv, Ukraine-based MXene manufacturing company Carbon-Ukraine, seeks to use the promising nanomaterial, first discovered at Drexel, to provide clean drinking water for arid areas of the world threatened by climate change and improve cell labeling and tracking technology for biomedical analysis.
elephant ear
Drexel Engineers Want to Make Buildings More Energy Efficient by Making Walls, Floors and Ceilings More Like Elephant Ears
New Research Highlights Health Benefits of Using Heritage Art Practices in Art Therapy
Turf announcement with banners and three people
Looking at the Student Research Behind Drexel’s Move to Organic Turf Management
View All Research news

Discovery and Innovation

NSF I-Corps at Drexel
Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship
Drexel Coulter Translational Research Partnership Program

ORI Team & Partners

The Office of Research & Innovation takes pride in its vibrant teams, dedicated staff, and collaborative partners.
Applied Innovation
Drexel Applied Innovation provides technology licensing, industry sponsored research support, entrepreneurial training and venture creation services to support the impact endeavors of Drexel faculty, postdocs, and graduate students.
Compliance
The Office of Research & Innovation is devoted to advocating for the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and applicable laws for all research endeavors.
Sponsored Programs
The Office of Sponsored Programs is responsible for reviewing and approving proposals for submission to external sponsors.
Welcoming New ORI Team Members
Please join in welcoming our new colleagues to the following teams.
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Partners in Research: University Research Council
The council has representation from each of Drexel's academic units as well as leaders from administrative offices who support the University's research mission.
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Additional partners

One Drexel

Drexel’s diverse committees, offices, and colleges work together to support and guide researchers of all levels and expertise. During any step of the research process, our committed partners will be able to assist and advise the researcher on any obstacle they may face. These partners are the University Research Council, Research Administration Advisory Committee (RAAC), University Advisory Committee (UACs), Senate Committee on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (SCRSCA), Environmental Health & Safety (EHS), Drexel Libraries, Office of Graduate Studies, Office of Global Engagement, and the Office of Faculty Affairs.

 

Stay connected to the ORI!
Quarterly Newsletter
The ORI's newsletter is a great source for key information and updates.
Email Announcements

View an archive of ORI's important announcements.

Upcoming Events
Access a comprehensive list of research-related events.
Office of Research & Innovation on LinkedIn
Follow the ORI's LinkedIn page for the latest news about research at Drexel!
ORI Training Library SharePoint
Access training materials and recordings of ORI webinars.
Novelution Hub SharePoint

Stay up to date on the COEUS Replacement Project via the new Novelution Hub!