Howard’s Office of Research Provides Muscle to Actualize Howard’s Research Potential

Howard’s research prowess has been leading edge for decades. However, the university realized it could better marshal resources and maximize impact by having an Office of Research as a coordinating entity. In 2018, it hired Bruce Jones, Ph.D., to lead the effort. He got to work creating systems to support research development and administration, intellectual property, and regulatory compliance. Since that time, the university has garnered record levels of research funding and is increasingly trusted to lead collaboration between educational institutions, grant funders, government agencies, non-profits, and industry partners. Jones is currently the senior vice president for research and a Howard University professor.

Jones’ own research interest is in political science, and he knows the power of alliance building. Howard currently has partnerships with national research libraries across the country, such as the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Co.

Jones would be the first to note that his work builds on years of leading-edge research at Howard, where thought leaders, inventors, and scholars have deep expertise in sciences, medicine, STEM, social justice and equity, and public policy, among other areas. He believes research efforts at Howard, HBCUs, and other universities are indispensable components of human progress. 

Research serves as the foundation for the systematic examination of the challenges we face as a nation and the development of ultimate solutions to these challenges.”

“Research flows through our very existence and universities serve as the central hubs in the United States where research is born, developed, and dispatched to the world,” Jones said. “Research serves as the foundation for the systematic examination of the challenges we face as a nation and the development of ultimate solutions to these challenges.”

Jones emphasized pivot points in history caused by research. The early steam engine has now given way to engines that can propel objects into space. The telegraph has evolved into smart phones. The abacus was the precursor to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Now, he said, research is the key to understanding the context in which humans will exist in the future.

“Throughout global history, research has led to powerful discoveries and inventions,” said Jones. 

“Everything to include the invention of antibiotics, disease prevention vaccines, imaging technologies, organ transplant methods and lifesaving devices that are used in an array of surgical procedures. Everything to include deeper understandings of our world from an ecosystemic standpoint, rapid population growth, food related dilemma, clean water challenges, climate change, and alternative energy solutions. Research in the humanities and social sciences has led to greater understandings of our human past – how we survived and thrived – creating deeper understandings of how humans will avoid extinction and endure into the future.”
Howard is the only top research university to also be an HBCU, but it is surely not the only HBCU that conducts large amounts of research. Other HBCUs, such as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Hampton University, conduct research within their own niches and also collaborate with Howard to scale research efforts. The work done at these schools benefits every human on the planet, but the unique heritage and culture of these institutions often lends greater insight into how marginalized communities around the world are affected by research methodology and outcomes. 

“HBCUs share a unique heritage and a unique legacy born out of a history of struggle against oppression and the brutality of enslavement, peonage, Jim Crow, and institutional racism, and discrimination,” said Jones. “Largely, because of this history in the United States, HBCUs are more likely to approach research opportunities, research problem solving, and the examination of sociopolitical and economic challenges we face in society through a social justice and equity lens.”

“Given the vital role of research in guiding and shaping public discourse and policy decision making, it is vitally important for HBCUs to be heavily engaged in the research arena,” Jones continued. “Public policy decision making at the local, state, federal, and private sectors of our political economy hold a direct impact on all communities including communities of color. If HBCUs are absent from research, then they are most likely absent from shaping public policy discourse and public policy decision making.”

Now that Howard has achieved R1 status, the highest designation for university research productivity, Jones intends to make sure that it maintains and sustains it. He foresees growth in the institution’s research enterprise and is working to foster emphasis in seven focus areas. Jones, his administrative team, and the university’s researchers are continuing to strengthen the Office of Research, encourage the strategic hiring of faculty researchers, promote student research, obtain state-of-the-art systems and equipment, pursue large-scale contracts, increase partnership agreements, and grow the financial value of its research portfolio.