Academic and Research Excellence Update
June 29, 2026
Dear colleagues,
We began these Academic and Research Excellence Updates in 2023 at President Chiang’s suggestion. He felt it was important to regularly share with all faculty and staff the multitude of ways that Purdue supports our teams as they actively pursue excellence across campus.
Over the past three and a half years, we have provided updates on key initiatives, services and investments designed to support you and your work. Very proudly, we have also celebrated many of your accomplishments, awards, elections to academies, fellowships and more.
Today’s message continues that tradition, highlighting several resources and investments that support what President Chiang calls your “sturdy, steady and strategic performance in research, academics and operations during a dynamic and consequential time for higher education.”
We want to thank President Chiang for his leadership and service to our university and wish him well.
Dan DeLaurentis, executive vice president for research
Chris Ruhl, chief financial officer and treasurer
Patrick Wolfe, provost
Important Updates
Research awards and industry partnerships. As FY2026 draws to a close, Purdue’s research enterprise continues to build momentum in research awards and industry partnerships. New extramural research awards are projected to exceed $600 million, surpassing last year’s awards of $574.7 million. This reflects stability and strategic growth across the portfolio as well as competitiveness in the federal landscape despite a challenging and evolving funding environment.
Final FY2026 extramural research award figures will be announced in the coming weeks. All university research spend exceeded $1 billion in FY2025.
Meanwhile, there is a notable increase in industry-sponsored research, a reflection of the strategic emphasis on diversifying our funding base. So far in FY2026, the university has executed 21 new master research agreements (MRA) and renewed nine. This brings Purdue’s total MRAs to 77, providing a robust framework for sustained collaborations with industry.
Important contributors to this growth in partnerships include the expansion of our industry partnership infrastructure. Sponsored Program Services (SPS) industry teams have worked closely with the Office of Industry Partnerships to streamline and scale partnership agreements. These agreements are critical enablers of research growth, reducing time to award and creating flexible pathways for companies to engage with Purdue faculty across disciplines.
The rebound in research awards and the strengthening of industry partnerships highlight Purdue’s continued resilience and adaptability. By maintaining strong federal performance while accelerating industry engagement, the university is reinforcing a balanced and sustainable research portfolio, positioning Purdue for continued success in the years ahead.
New AI course offerings in the fall semester. In 2025, the Purdue Board of Trustees approved an AI working competency graduation requirement for all Purdue undergraduates, which will begin in the 2026-27 academic year. The goal is to ensure Purdue graduates possess job-ready AI skills and critical thinking competencies to:
- Understand and use the latest AI tools effectively in their fields
- Recognize and communicate clearly about AI use, decisions, and limitations
- Adapt to future AI developments effectively and continually.
Initially, Purdue will offer 22 AI competency courses focused on fields ranging from engineering, science and human development to literacy, pharmacy and food science. A full list of courses will be available on the Purdue Undergraduate Curriculum Council (UCC) website shortly. For more information, contact Haley Oliver-Jischke.
Capital Investments
Life sciences and One Health facilities. As part of Purdue’s multi-site, integrated life sciences infrastructure strategy, Purdue has four state-of-the-art facilities in development. These are designed to co-locate academic, industry and translational research activity. Supporting Purdue’s life sciences and the One Health strategic initiative, they include:
Northwest Indianapolis Research Building (Indianapolis). Purdue Research Foundation recently completed the purchase of a new state-of-the-art research facility in Indianapolis. Part of Purdue’s One Health strategic initiative, this facility is intended to help accelerate health and life sciences research and support partnership development in Central Indiana.
Planning for the 80,000-square-foot space is underway. The space is expected to offer research teams biotech research labs, walk-in cold storage units, darkrooms, autoclave rooms and more. This facility is the latest major capital investment in Purdue’s life sciences research and education infrastructure. Availability for Purdue research teams and others will be announced in the coming months.
Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building (West Lafayette). This 185,000-square-foot building, currently under construction, will include general-use classrooms, clinical instruction spaces, animal research space, study spaces, offices and common areas. It is expected to open at the end of this year.
Arthur G. Hansen Life Sciences Research Building (West Lafayette). Purdue is exploring potential opportunities such as renovating this facility’s infrastructure to create flexible laboratory and research environments for chemistry, biochemistry and related disciplines.
One Health Innovation District (Indianapolis). The One Health Innovation District is being developed in partnership with industry, with a vision to integrate research, diagnostics, manufacturing and commercialization in a single ecosystem. It is co-located on the Elanco campus in downtown Indianapolis. Core components include:
- Research institute co-locating industry and Purdue academic teams.
- Pilot-scale/scale-up studio to bridge discovery and manufacturing.
- Research trials hub, including veterinary clinical trials and continuing education.
Strategic Initiatives and Programs
Research Transformation. With the university research funding landscape evolving, the Office of Research recently hosted a series of Research Transformation Faculty Forums to help shape Purdue’s strategic road map. These faculty-driven discussions, along with other engagement sessions, aim to strengthen Purdue’s position as a leading R1 university by advancing research that delivers meaningful impact and value to the nation.
Held in Indianapolis and West Lafayette, these forums were opportunities for faculty to discuss and brainstorm ideas around the following topics to shape Purdue’s success:
- Promoting more effective and efficient research operations
- New sources that diversify and grow funding portfolios
- Emerging “Big Idea” research for Purdue leadership awareness
- Enabling best use of core facilities to grow research portfolios
- Teaming for success across Purdue
- Defining Purdue research success in 10 years
- Expanding awareness of all internal resources, facilities and services
Following these forums, a steering committee led by Dan DeLaurentis is working with leadership, colleges and others to define a universitywide strategy to position Purdue for the future. There will be opportunities for further faculty and staff engagement on this work later this year.
Research Space Optimization Initiative (RSOI). The Office of Research is leading a new strategic effort to optimize use of research space, which is one of Purdue’s most constrained and expensive resources. The goal of the RSOI is to develop a data-driven framework for managing and allocating all of Purdue’s more than 1.7 million square feet of laboratory space. Currently, management is decentralized across Purdue.
Over the next year, RSOI seeks to optimize allocation by building one universitywide space assignment repository as well as by creating universal metrics to track space efficiency (e.g., expenditures per square foot). It will also create a central governing body designed to break down collegiate silos, coordinate solutions for immediate space needs and guide the planning of new research facilities. Finally, standardized policies for space assignments will be implemented across the university. This initiative is led by Dan DeLaurentis.
Purdue-Google AI Summit. Purdue and Google will host the third annual Purdue-Google AI Summit, organized by the Institute for Physical AI (IPAI) in early November in Indianapolis. The summit will focus on how industry and researchers are scaling AI applications, delivering real-world impact and integrating AI-driven workflows across disciplines.
The event will feature industry keynotes, breakout sessions, demonstrations, networking opportunities and hands-on tutorials with Google AI tools. A key goal is to highlight faculty-led research and use cases that leverage Google AI resources.
Faculty interested in showcasing applications that accelerate discovery, enhance data workflows or advance physical AI methodologies should email a brief overview to ipai@purdue.edu. Anybody wishing to receive updates, including agenda and registration, can sign up to be on the IPAI mailing list.
Strategic faculty hiring. In our ongoing pursuit of excellence at scale at Purdue, the university continues to implement the strategy of targeted, talent-based hiring and cluster hiring in key areas.
During FY2026, 13 outstanding faculty at all career stages were recruited to Purdue through the talent-based Moveable Dream Hires program. This brings the total number of hires through this program to 38 over the past three years. Meanwhile, cluster searches extending across multiple colleges and focused on areas such as One Health and advanced chemistry have yielded robust candidate pools and seven excellent hires for Purdue.
In addition to the seven cluster hires and the 13 Moveable Dream Hires, Purdue welcomed 26 topic-based faculty members and 30 clinical/professional faculty members in West Lafayette or Indianapolis during FY2026.
Purdue University Books Initiative. With more than 575 publishing contracts signed over the last two years and over 65 books published so far this calendar year, Purdue authors are making excellent progress on book publishing.
Through the Purdue University Books Initiative, several forms of support and incentives are available to Purdue authors. Purdue regularly hosts webinars as well as campus visits by major publishers to facilitate access to leading editors and publishing services. Authors with signed contracts can benefit from graphic design expertise, support for pursuing permissions, and formatting, proofreading and other book production tasks not completed by the publisher.
These services are available for all types of books, including adaptations of lecture notes, training materials, case studies, dissertation-to-book conversions and new editions of existing works. Importantly, incentives are also available to authors who can have an accepted manuscript by April 30, 2027. Details are available at Purdue Books. Any authors interested in going from “Idea to ISBN” are encouraged to complete this brief author survey or email Cristina Farmus.
Faculty Recognitions
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards. Purdue is celebrating 10 faculty members who have received National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program awards so far in 2026. The recipients are Laura Blumenschein (mechanical engineering), James C. Davis (electrical and computer engineering), Benjamin Delaware (computer science), Zahra Ghodsi (electrical and computer engineering), Qi Guo (electrical and computer engineering), Nusrat Jung (civil and construction engineering), Rajiv Khanna (computer science), Haitong Li (electrical and computer engineering), Rachel Surowiec (biomedical engineering) and Jukka Vayrynen (physics and astronomy).
Upcoming application deadlines: Guggenheim, ACLS and Fulbright. Applications for these prestigious fellowships are approaching in September:
- Guggenheim Fellowship (all disciplines): The Guggenheim Fellowship is among the nation’s most distinguished honors for scholars, artists and scientists, recognizing exceptional prior achievement and future promise. Information about the 2027 competition is expected in late summer, with an anticipated deadline around mid-September. Information about the fellowship is available here. For further details, email facultyawards@purdue.edu.
- ACLS Fellowships (humanities and social sciences): American Council of Learned Societies fellowships support outstanding scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences by helping scholars pursue full-time research and writing. The program provides six to 12 months of support for scholars undertaking ambitious research projects. Competition details will be posted in July, with an anticipated deadline around late September. For further details, email facultyawards@purdue.edu.
- Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards: The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers more than 380 awards in over 120 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and lead professional projects around the world. The deadline for the 2027-28 competition is Sept. 15. For further information on the Fulbright U.S. Scholar program, contact Chris Lukasik.