BU is home to a multitude of research centers and institutes, many of which are embedded in BU’s 17 schools and colleges. A subset of those centers, listed below, facilitate highly collaborative research that spans disciplines and report directly to the Office of Research.
The Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute
The Danielsen Institute’s mission is to alleviate suffering and to promote healing, growth, and change in the persons, communities, and institutions which they serve through clinical service, training, research, and teaching which emphasize depth psychotherapy and are informed by spiritual, religious, and existential perspectives.
Center for Antiracist Research
Seeks to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. Fosters exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives—working toward building an antiracist society that ensures equity and justice for all.
Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases
Improves societal resilience against the threat of emerging and epidemic infectious diseases worldwide through research, training, and advocacy.
Center for Brain Recovery
Conducts ground-breaking research on approaches to enhance diagnosis and improve treatments for people with neurological disorders including stroke, traumatic brain injury, dementia, and others.
Center on Forced Displacement
Fosters interdisciplinary research and engagement with the global challenge of forced displacement. Brings together multidisciplinary teams of researchers, practitioners, and artists from across schools and colleges at Boston University, around the country, and around the world.
Center for Systems Neuroscience
Fosters cutting-edge, interdisciplinary collaborative research linking neural mechanisms to human behavior, and will generate and provide access to technical innovations to enhance understanding of neural systems.
Cognitive Neuroimaging Center
A multidisciplinary research center committed to expanding our understanding of the brain across multiple levels. The CNC is home to several state-of-the-art facilities including a 3T Siemens MAGNETOM Prisma MRI scanner.
Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation
Conducts research and engineers solutions for biotechnology, photonics, manufacturing, renewable energy, and many more industries.
Global Development Policy Center
Advances policy-oriented research for financial stability, human well-being, and environmental sustainability. Conducts rigorous policy research, provides a convening place for scholars and stakeholders, engages in policy dialogue with policy makers, civil society, and media, and offers experiential learning for BU students.
Initiative on Cities
Promotes and advances the adaptive urban leadership strategies necessary to support cities as dynamic centers of economic growth and development in the 21st century.
Institute for Global Sustainability
Pioneers research to advance a sustainable and equitable future, with a focus on planetary and environmental health, climate governance, and energy systems.
Nanotechnology Innovation Center
Advances academic and technological research in interdisciplinary nanoscience and nanotechnology that is leading a revolution in basic materials science and engineering.
National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL)
The NEIDL is a state-of-the-art research facility that supports the work of investigators who focus on infectious diseases that are—or have the potential to become—major public health concerns. The facility houses biosafety level 2 (BSL-2), BSL-3, and BSL-4 laboratories, which are designed to permit investigators to work safely with these emerging pathogens.
Neurophotonics Center
Builds and supports an interdisciplinary community that can develop and broadly deploy impactful photonics technologies in the neurosciences to advance our understanding of how the brain works in health and in disease.
Photonics Center
Provides extensive, state-of-the-art facilities as a unique resource for the development of advanced photonics device prototypes for commercial, military, and health care applications.
Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering
Advances the science of computing while initiating and propelling collaborative, interdisciplinary research and training through computational and data-driven approaches.