Strategic Research Plan

NJIT Strategic Research Plan

Research is an integral part of a strong academic experience. The 2025 Strategic Plan, we has 5 research clusters representing NJIT's research enterprise.

Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Research

Research is an integral part of a strong academic experience and a critical priority in NJIT’s 2025 Strategic Plan. The university aims for national and international prominence in research through new discoveries in areas ranging from medical sensors and devices to robotics, to nanotechnology, to cybersecurity, to next-generation materials, among other topics of vital importance in basic, applied and translational research. 

The 150 new faculty members we have hired over the past five years strengthen our efforts considerably. They include experts on topics such as biomedical sciences and engineering, sensors, energy, novel materials, machine learning, data analytics, and virtual reality. They arrive with impressive track records in securing grants from key funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense. We are confident that their participation in our multidisciplinary centers will help NJIT reach its ambitious external funding benchmarks that has already more than doubled over the last five years. 

To achieve our research and educational goals, the university’s strategic plan calls for seamless multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research collaborations and technology innovation-based entrepreneurship among faculty, staff and students, who all have a central part to play in advancing science, engineering and technology to fuel societal progress. NJIT’s nexus of core research facilities involving York Center, Life Sciences and Engineering Center and Microfabrication Innovation Center is designed to accelerate game-changing collaborations with new teaching and research labs, rooms to conduct projects and common areas where faculty and students can socialize and share ideas.

The NJIT’s 2025 Research Strategic Plan organizes five research clusters of high significance and societal impact aligned with the global trends in science and technology research and development.  Comprised of core and transdisciplinary basic, applied and translational research interests, the five clusters in NJIT research enterprise include:   

BIOSCIENCE AND BIOENGINEERING: This research cluster includes multidisciplinary research in the areas of biomedical devices, sensors and instrumentation, brain health & neuroscience, tissue engineering, biological sciences & behavior, molecular biology, evolutionary sciences, and gene therapy and phenotype related research. Researchers at NJIT are advancing our understanding of the functions of the brain and spinal cord under normal, injured and diseased states at molecular, cellular and functional levels through experimental, theoretical and computational methods. Imaging experts, computer scientists and biomedical engineers are working together, for example, to devise therapies and devices that will improve motor, cognitive and organ functions. To this end, our tissue engineers focus on replacing dysfunctional cells with regenerating cells and tissues. The Bioscience and Bioengineering cluster intersects with other research clusters including Material Science and Engineering, Robotics and Machine Intelligence and Data Science and Management in developing healthcare technologies and systems such as point-of-care medical sensors, devices and rehabilitation systems as well as healthcare information systems and management involving primary care, hospitals and emergency care resources and protocols. 

The scope of the proposed cluster includes areas that are aligned with the NSF’s 10 Big Ideas, and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Grand Challenges in “Reverse Engineering of the Brain,” “Tools for Scientific Discovery,” “Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype” and “Engineering Better Medicine.” 

DATA SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT:  This research cluster includes the study and practice of data science and analytics, and extracting information and knowledge from data that can be used for medical, financial, business management scientific and engineering applications. These groups conduct research on bioinformatics, medical informatics, image processing, data mining, solar-terrestrial physics, transportation, financial management, business administration and management, life sciences and healthcare.

The cybersecurity group designs secure cyber systems and improves cyber information and communications technology (ICT). ICT is shaping many aspects of society as the economy evolves rapidly, providing access to unprecedented amounts of information, anytime and anywhere, from any type of device. By 2025, the number of global IoT (internet of Things) connections will increase from 12 billion in 2020 to more than 30 billion according to an estimate by IoT Analytics. Global spending on security hardware, software and services is estimated to almost reaching $175 billion by 2024, according to Statista. This cluster with a broader transdisciplinary scope with diverse applications also includes multidisciplinary research centers focused on mathematical sciences, transportation systems, additive manufacturing and wireless communications technology and industry and business management, as well as on the societal impacts of science and technology. 

The Data Science and Management cluster spans over all other research clusters including Bioscience and Bioengineering, Environment and Sustainability, Material Science and Engineering and Robotics and Machine Intelligence for developing data driven approaches in almost all applications from healthcare information systems to industry automation, and to finance and business management. 

NAE and NAS Grand Challenges and NSF Big Ideas within the scope of this cluster include “Secure Cyberspace”, “Advance Personalized Learning”, “Enhance Virtual Reality” “Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure”, “Engineer the Tools of Scientific Discovery”, and “The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier”, “Harnessing the Data Revolution”, “Growing Convergence Research” and “The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution”.

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY: This cluster represents interdisciplinary research areas in urban ecology, space weather, solar terrestrial, environmental sensors, sustainable infrastructure, intelligent transportation systems, global climate change, biodiversity and conservation, clean water, waste management, renewable energy, and smart grid systems. The urban ecology and sustainability area emphasizes sustainable infrastructure, smart transportation, ecological communities, and urban modeling and simulation. Space weather sciences and impact of evolutionary changes in the solar system impacts directly our environmental ecosystem and global climate changes. This area also focuses on the water-energy nexus and the impact of ocean levels on the environment, as well as the development of technologies to clean water and to provide green energy, such as biofuel cells and powerful, long-lasting batteries. The Environment and Sustainability cluster intersects with other research clusters including Material Science and Engineering, Robotics and Machine Intelligence and Data Science and Management in developing smart and green buildings and sustainable communities, understanding space weather and climate changes. 

NAE and NAS Grand Challenges and NSF Big Ideas within the scope of this cluster include “Solar Energy”, “Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure”, “Access to Clean Water”, “Provide Energy from Fusion”, “Develop Carbon Sequestration Methods”, and “The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier”, “Navigating the New Arctic” and “Windows on the Universe”. 

MATERIAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING: This cluster represents transdisciplinary research areas in advanced materials including smart energetic and campsite materials, quantum materials, and biomaterials, polymers and membrane technologies, nanotechnologies, and additive/advanced manufacturing systems. The scope of nanotechnology research includes scientific and engineering phenomena at the minutest and most fundamental levels in order to develop technologies for environmental and pharmaceutical applications. The interdisciplinary group on engineered materials and particulates focuses on technology development for the preparation, processing and use of engineered-particulate materials and their composites for a spectrum of applications. Research in the manufacturing systems group involves developing new methods and technologies for design innovation and process automation. A specific emphasis is to devise new processes and tools for pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The Material Science and Engineering cluster spans over almost all research clusters including Bioscience and Bioengineering, Environment and Sustainability, Robotics and Machine Intelligence and Data Science and Management in developing environmental and medical sensors and devices, tissue engineering intelligent robotics and rehabilitation systems, additive and pharmaceutical manufacturing, smart buildings and sustainable communities, and data driven modeling and simulation for the development and characterization of smart materials. 

NAE and NAS Grand Challenges and NSF Big Ideas within the scope of this cluster include “Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure”, “Solar Energy”, “Provide Energy from Fusion”, “Develop Carbon Sequestration Methods”, and “The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier”, and “The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution”. 

ROBOTICS AND MACHINE INTELLIGENCE: This research cluster includes human machine interface, cyber-human systems, robotics: bioinspired, medical, social and industrial autonomous systems, intelligent infrastructure, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented and virtual reality. Robotics and bioinspired autonomous systems are making a significant impact in the society in many areas including rehabilitation, manufacturing, navigation and transportation, and medical and home-based care. The artificial intelligence and augmented/virtual reality applications have been evolving rapidly with the futuristic vision for new modes of automation, discoveries, social networking and even co-evolution of machine and human intelligence making important decisions in our daily life from finance to healthcare.

The Robotics and Machine Intelligence cluster also interacts with other research clusters including Bioscience and Bioengineering, Environment and Sustainability, Material Science and Engineering and Data Science and Management in developing smart automation and navigation systems, smart healthcare information systems, intelligent adaptative and data-driven automations in additive manufacturing systems, and intelligent systems for almost every application from education and learning to smart cities and living-assist systems.  

NAE and NAS Grand Challenges and NSF Big Ideas within the scope of this cluster include “Advance Personalized Learning”, “Enhance Virtual Reality” “Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure”, “Engineer the Tools of Scientific Discovery”, and “The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier”, “Harnessing the Data Revolution”, “Growing Convergence Research” and “The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution”.