Research is the engine that propels IUPUI forward, generating new knowledge that directly affects the lives of people in our community, our state, the nation, and the world.  Despite increasingly fierce competition for research funding, IUPUI was awarded nearly $300 million in external research funding in 2006-2007, surpassing all other campuses in the state.  Approximately 95 percent of these funds support health and life sciences research.  External grants provide life-changing opportunities for undergraduates to participate in cutting-edge discoveries; they invigorate the local and regional economy through direct expenditures and job creation; and they advance partnerships with collaborators across the country and around the world, creating national and international impact.

Two initiatives launched in 2006-2007 promise to multiply further the impact of research conducted by IUPUI faculty, students, and other partners.  The TRIP—Translating Research into Practice—initiative focuses on converting research discoveries into practical applications to improve lives in Indiana and beyond through advances in healthcare, technology, public policy, and more.  The Signature Center program provides internal seed funding to distinctive, predominantly interdisciplinary research units that demonstrate potential to attract significant external funding and to make unique contributions to knowledge.  Among the 19 Signature Centers identified through a campus-wide competition in 2006-2007, fourteen focus on the health and life sciences, taking up interdisciplinary issues ranging from pain management to study of genetic and environmental causes of cancer to health policy and bioethics.  Already, several Signature Centers have begun to garner substantial grant funds from federal agencies.