Research Support and Resources
Howard maintains a comprehensive portfolio of services that facilitate research inquiry for our faculty and students. Many resources are available at Howard to support your research.
Comprehensive Research Support
Howard maintains a comprehensive portfolio of services that support the research interests of our faculty and students. The Howard University Research Centers Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program, which supports biomedical, translational, and clinical research; the Office of Research; and the Office of Regulatory Research Compliance (ORRC) function as essential partners in advancing Howard University’s research mission in collaboration with partners in colleges, research centers and institutes, and across the campus community. Together, they facilitate research discovery, provide strategic direction and support for sponsored research funding, and foster the ethical conduct of research.
NAEP-HU Research Methods and Statistics Virtual Workshops
Interested in learning how to effectively design a qualitative study using various methodological approaches, including case study, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, and narrative inquiry? Interested in sharpening your skills in multivariate research methods and statistical analysis (i.e., developing research questions with multiple predictors, designing multi-factor experimental and correlational studies, conducting regression analyses with various predictors, and conducting path analysis)? Want to learn more about how to analyze data using statistical analysis software packages such as SPSS and SAS? Attend a virtual workshop with the NAEP-Howard Statistics and Evaluation Institute from the comfort of your home or office.
Statistical Consulting
Get assistance with designing experiments, statistical modeling, or data analysis for research activities at the Statistical Advisory Unit housed in the Department of Mathematics. Expertise includes multivariate analysis, non-parametric statistics, probability distributions, reliability testing, sampling, simulation, statistical inference, and time series analysis. Including a statistician as a co-investigator is advised if a new methodology needs to be developed. An adviser may or may not be prepared to spend time working on a problem that is part of an existing grant.
Research Librarians
Contact your designated librarian for help with library research and resources specific to your areas of study. Research librarians are subject-area specialists that provide instruction and develop collections that serve the educational and research needs of the University’s academic departments. They offer individual and group instruction on utilizing online catalogs and research databases, orientation to information resources, and guidance for research projects within the discipline.
Funded Research Opportunities
Explore funding opportunities for your research through the Graduate School and the Research Development Unit in the Office of Research. The Research Development Unit identifies and disseminates federal funding opportunities to researchers weekly throughout the Howard University community. The Research Development Unit identifies, tracks, and communicates these research funding opportunities in alignment with scholar research interests. The Office provides listings of internal funding and grant awards and provides assistance with funding opportunity search engines including Pivot, an online database of funding opportunities.
Grant Writing Workshops
Attend a grant writing workshop offered by the Graduate School Office of Extramural Funding. Grant writing and research funding workshops, offered throughout the year, are designed to introduce graduate students and post-docs to the process of successful grant writing and proposal development, covering a range of topics including identifying funder priorities, compelling ways to present your preliminary data and findings, and how to develop an effective research plan including timeline, budget, and justification development. In addition, the Research Development Unit in Howard's Office of Research provides a listing of grant writing and seminar workshops. These seminar workshops are intended to provide an overview of the practical and conceptual aspects of writing competitive and successful grant proposals and to provide strategies for effectively presenting a research case.
Department Research Workshops
Attend department talks and research workshops which offer an avenue to present and receive feedback on your early-stage research. In addition, some workshops provide intensive training and mentorship to students in preparing practical dissertation proposals, strengthening their interdisciplinary research skills, increasing their research's practical and policy relevance, and developing effective communication and translation skills for policy and public audiences.
HU Research Month
Share your research findings during Howard’s Research Month which showcases the breadth and depth of research innovation and creativity being conducted by Howard's faculty, students, and research staff across all disciplines. The month’s activities range from guest speakers and workshops to a research symposium that expands multidisciplinary collaboration opportunities. The Research Symposium, held in April, brings together Howard's students, faculty, and staff to discuss their research work and findings, supporters from various federal and local agencies, and representatives of the philanthropic and higher education community.
Institutional Review Board
Get guidance and requirements for conducting research that involves human subjects through Howard University's Institutional Review Board (IRB). The University requires that all research undergoes review and approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) before engaging in research activities. As of summer 2021, the IRB application is now housed under iMedris online. Students and scholars should submit proposals two months before the research's intended start date to ensure adequate review time.
Copyright, Patent & Trademark Resources
Learn how to transfer your inventions and ideas to the marketplace and about commercialization options and legal protection for your research inventions and discoveries at Howard's Founders Library, one of 85 Federal Patent and Trademark Resource Centers nationwide. Also, the division of Intellectual Property and Innovation (IP) at Howard's Office of Research is the University's authorized unit to manage, license, buy, and sell IP (patents, trademarks, and copyrightable works). These institutional resources provide education and guidance to graduate students, faculty, and staff regarding copyright law and identifying, using, and creating copyrighted content.
Office of Research
The Office of Research is comprised of four vital operational units: (1) Research Development (RD), (2) Research Administrative Services (RAS), (3) Intellectual Property & Innovation Commercialization (IPIC), and (4) the Office of Regulatory Research & Compliance (ORRC). Each of these units works in a coordinated fashion with Schools and departments to promote the best interests of research at Howard University and to support proposal development and submission, responsible research practices, financial stewardship, research compliance, and research administration and dissemination. The work of the Office of Research has led to a more than doubling of the University’s grant and contract research portfolio since 2018.
Office of Regulatory Research Compliance (ORRC)
The Office of Regulatory Research Compliance (ORRC) at Howard University is responsible for the development, oversight, and monitoring of research compliance at Howard University. The ORRC, through the management of University research review and compliance, acts as a resource to the Howard's research community. The ORRC supports and promotes the ethical conduct of research at Howard and educates the University community about federal, state, and local regulations related to protecting human participants in the course of research activities, animal care and use, biohazards and safety, data use, and ownership.
Research Centers Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program
The Howard University Research Centers Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program aims to reduce health disparities by leveraging the expertise, research infrastructure, and resources of the RCMI member institutions, researchers, medical professionals, and community partners in health science to accelerate the quality and pace of research on the treatment of diseases that disproportionately affect underserved populations and communities. The HU RCMI Program is an essential partner in realizing the institution’s research goals and aims to support biomedical, translational, and clinical research.
Interdisciplinary Research Building (HU-IRB)
The Howard University Interdisciplinary Research Building is an 81,670-square-foot, state-of-the-art research facility that fosters team-based research collaborations across disciplines. The Interdisciplinary Research Building houses faculty whose research efforts are interdisciplinary in nature and primarily focused on bio-nanosciences, natural products research & drug development, microbial ecology, diversity, and immunology, atmospheric sciences, and developmental biology and stem cell differentiation or related areas. The building is a green, energy-efficient (LEED) facility that incorporates the latest educational, environmental, and research standards. It includes a clean room, laboratories, instructional space, and centralized offices for faculty, students, and academic staff.
Graduate School Research and Media Center
Howard's Graduate School launched the Research and Media Center in honor of Dean Emeritus the late Gary L. Harris. The Center, located on the first two floors of the Graduate School, is intended to be a centralized space for all collecting, analyzing, and reporting data. The digital broadcast center will offer media production services to support scholars in producing webinars and podcast series. The second floor has eight workstations which enable scholars to conduct interviews and record data.