Overview
Research is at the center of the student and faculty experience here at the University of South Florida. Designated as a “Preeminent State Research University,” the Tampa campus is one of the nation’s top public research university campuses and one of only 56 public research university campuses classified by the Carnegie Foundation as both a Doctoral University with “Highest Research Activity” and as a “Community Engaged” institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
With the world at their fingertips, researchers at USF turn thought into action – and impact. We rank eighth in the nation among public universities and 15th worldwide among all universities granted new U.S. utility patents. USF’s innovation and economic development efforts generate more than $582 million in statewide impact each year, sustain more than 4,000 jobs, and return more than $71 million in tax revenue to local, state, and federal coffers, according to a 2019 analysis from the Washington Economics Group. Some 82 percent of the jobs created by USF innovation statewide are in the knowledge-based services sector.
A true research powerhouse, USF was awarded $535.4 million in research contracts and grants in fiscal year 2020, with $354 million in total research expenditures. USF charges into uncharted terrain, conducting meaningful research that resonates in our local community and throughout the world. Our researchers are at the forefront of innovation in medicine, environmental science, engineering, data science and the arts. We lead the way in the treatment of brain and heart disease, cybersecurity, sustainability, infectious disease and clean energy, and the USF Pediatric Epidemiology Center is the global epicenter for juvenile diabetes research.
USF is dedicated to empowering our scholars and investing in their potential. Designated a community-engaged institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF takes pride in cultivating links between our researchers and local businesses in need of research partnerships. The USF Research Park in Tampa is home to a network of innovation-based companies, government resources and business development tools and is poised to maximize our university’s impact in the Tampa Bay community.
With such momentous activity across our three campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota-Manatee, our undergraduates bolster their college experiences by taking advantage of a multitude of available research opportunities. Office of High Impact Practices and Undergraduate Research provides support to students engaged in research and teaches students about the expectations and privileges associated with undergraduate research.
Graduate students are at the center of our university’s far-reaching research endeavors. Each day they work alongside internationally renowned faculty and researchers, and together they forge solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
At USF, research is a creative and ongoing collaboration between faculty and students, administrators, business and academic partners and our local community. Together we are an ever stronger global research university that explores uncharted terrain, generates knowledge, unleashes innovation and changes lives.