Research Support Offices | University-wide Research Centers | Other Reporting Offices

Research Support Offices

These are the offices that keep University research running smoothly. Please visit the Research Support website for more details on research administration at BU.

Industry Engagement

Industry Engagement builds strategic long-term relationships with industry, creating road maps that identify areas of mutual opportunity. They work with industry partners to navigate BU’s many disciplines, departments, schools and colleges, identifying the best talent, best research, and best ways to engage students and faculty.

Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office

The Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office (IBRO) facilitates new and current areas of interdisciplinary biomedical research by supporting strategic and faculty-driven initiatives that stimulate existing and new biomedical research and training across BU.

Foundation Relations

Foundation Relations builds sustainable, mutually beneficial partnerships between the University and the charitable organizations that share our research, teaching, and social service missions. We pursue this goal through three, related strategies: Faculty Assistance, Coordination and Stewardship, and Fundraising.

Office of Research

The Office of Research supports all aspects of research at BU, overseeing and coordinating between all the University’s research support offices and reporting centers to facilitate BU research.

Post Award Financial Operations (PAFO)

Post Award Financial Operations assists faculty and administrators with financial and compliance oversight of sponsored program accounts, financial reporting and billing, effort reporting, service center rate negotiation, and F&A rate proposals.

Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs

The Professional Development and Postdoctoral Affairs team works with postdocs, doctoral students, and faculty mentors on both campuses to identify and provide career and educational resources and to create new opportunities for personal and professional development.

Research Compliance

Research Compliance helps faculty, administrators, and staff involved in research  comply with city, state, and national laws and regulations, and maintain standards of integrity, quality, and ethics.

Sponsored Programs

Sponsored Programs specializes in assisting faculty and administrators in proposal review and submission, award negotiation and acceptance and University policies and procedures. OSP is the coordinating office for all pre-award and non-financial post-award needs.

Technology Development

Works toward commercial applications of the groundbreaking research and discoveries taking place every day at Boston University.

Public Relations

Assist faculty members and researchers in communicating their expertise and achievements to external audiences through op-ed assistance, media training, and social media consulting.

University-wide Research Centers & Institutes

Each of the following centers and programs reports up to the Office of Research.

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 for Network Systems Biology

Supports, enhances and disseminates transformative collaborative research in network systems biology across both the Medical and Charles River Campuses to establish BU as a world leader in mapping molecular networks, foster collaborative interdisciplinary network systems biology research at BU, and devise and provide access to technical innovations.

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.

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.

Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy

Created to develop solutions to address the critical challenges of health and healthcare, both in the United States and globally, IHSIP aims to transform healthcare through integration and innovation across science and technology, system design and management, leadership, and policy development.

Institute for Sustainable Energy

Assists and promotes faculty research, and enhances BU’s curricular offerings and communication products related to sustainable energy.

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)

Dedicated to the development of diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments to combat emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, the NEIDL is part of a national network of secure facilities studying infectious diseases that are—or have the potential to become—major public health concerns and currently conducts research at Biosafety Level 3.

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.

Other Reporting Offices

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. The Danielsen Center for the Study of Religion & Psychology is located within the institute to carry out the research mission.

Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation

Conducts research and engineers solutions for biotechnology, photonics, manufacturing, renewable energy, and many more industries.

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.