Science Futures
President's Science Futures Report Letter
Dear Colleagues,
In my Fall 2024 State of the University address, I spoke about one of the most exciting challenges that Stony Brook faces in the coming decade. While it is a strong research university, Stony Brook has the potential to become a preeminent research university, a true flagship, by doubling its research expenditures and focusing on the impact and reach of its scientific discoveries.
The research landscape is rapidly changing. Emerging trends offer significant opportunities to advance our understanding and attract crucial government and philanthropic support. Stony Brook must position our research enterprise to capitalize on these trends. With that in mind, I convened many of our university’s leading researchers to engage in an important strategic visioning exercise. The goal was to define the critical steps Stony Brook must take to solidify its position as a flagship research university.
The group was asked to imagine it was 2035 and to identify the major scientific contributions they would like Stony Brook to have achieved during the preceding decade. In responding to that charge, the group was able to draw upon many studies of Stony Brook’s research enterprise that have been conducted over the past five years. Their thoughtful assessment resulted in the Science Futures Report that follows. The report offers critical insights and recommendations to help shape Stony Brook's strategic directions, and it highlights the investments in our scientific infrastructure that would be needed to unleash a transformative future for science at Stony Brook.
I am deeply grateful to the cross-disciplinary team of researchers and faculty who have prepared this report. If Stony Brook adopts their vision, which I believe it will, our university will soon advance to become a truly pioneering research institution. I am grateful to all of our talented students, staff and faculty who work every day to elevate Stony Brook’s positive impact on the world.
Sincerely,
Richard L. McCormick
Interim President
Executive Summary
As New York state's premier public university and a flagship institution within the State University of New York (SUNY) system, Stony Brook University stands at the forefront of research and academic excellence. Our commitment to advancing knowledge is underscored by over $330 million in annual research and development expenditures and our proud membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), placing us among the nation's leading research-intensive institutions. A recent landmark $500 million endowment gift from the Simons Foundation – the largest unrestricted donation in the history of U.S. higher education – will be a catalytic force, strengthening our role as the leading research hub for SUNY and the state of New York. It will fuel significant investments in our innovation ecosystem, including research infrastructure (i.e., core facilities), cross-campus collaboration, and strategic initiatives like SUNY STrategic Research InVEstment (STRIVE), thereby driving regional economic growth in addition to promoting job creation, commercial innovation and economic diversification.
Stony Brook University is uniquely positioned as one of the few universities nationwide to oversee both a major academic healthcare system and manage a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory (Brookhaven National Laboratory). The synergy and opportunities between our campuses and vast variety of disciplines, spanning our existing strengths in the natural and health sciences, marine sciences, journalism, business, engineering, social sciences, and humanities, enable powerful, unique, and transformative interdisciplinary research collaborations connecting faculty, students, and partners across SUNY and beyond. Our expertise in building partnerships with industry, government, and community stakeholders ensures that our research will translate into real-world impact and inclusive innovation.
Our strategic roadmap, Our Moment, charts a course focused on amplifying Stony Brook University’s global impact through collaborative discovery and innovation. Central to this vision are four key pillars: empowering researcher and scholar training and success, catalyzing interdisciplinary collaborations, nurturing local innovation with global dissemination of discoveries, and cultivating impactful external partnerships. These strategic goals are integral to our ambition of doubling research expenditures and significantly expanding the impact and reach of our scientific breakthroughs. Stony Brook's vibrant and diverse environment supports a growing community of 3,000 faculty and 26,000 students who drive our innovation ecosystem and benefit from access to cutting-edge facilities and resources. The university is home to an extensive network of over 100 specialized centers and institutes that span a wide range of fields and foster high-impact research. These dynamic entities are engines of knowledge creation and translation and economic growth. Such efforts will drive innovation and address pressing societal challenges across Long Island, New York state and beyond, which will ultimately benefit the lives of individual citizens in our nation in a tangible and practical way.
Recognizing the evolving landscape of research and the imperative to strategically
position our research enterprise, Stony Brook University initiated a forward-looking
visioning exercise known as the Science Futures. This collaborative initiative brought together many of the university's most accomplished
researchers. This cross-disciplinary faculty team was convened and charged with envisioning
Stony Brook's pivotal scientific contributions by the year 2035, building upon comprehensive
analyses of the university's existing research strengths. The Science Futures process involved focused committee meetings and a thorough review of prior strategic
planning efforts. The resulting recommendations, which are consistent with our institutional
mission, values, and aspirations, are not only designed to be adaptable to the dynamic
research and funding environment, but also intended to extend and deepen previous
initiatives aimed at strategically advancing research output and impact over both
the short and long term.
The Science Futures report therefore offers invaluable insights and actionable recommendations to guide
Stony Brook's strategic trajectory in research in areas such as but not limited to
energy technology, climate science, quantum information, biotechnology and artificial
intelligence.
A core tenet of the Science Futures report is the recognition and further cultivation of Stony Brook's inherent interdisciplinary strength. The report strongly advocates for fostering and incentivizing transformative, interdisciplinary research collaboration through a range of strategic mechanisms. These include shared research spaces, core facilities, the implementation of targeted training programs, the formal recognition of team science in promotion and tenure considerations, and the establishment of dedicated incentives for collaborative research projects. It also underscores the importance of undergraduate and graduate education as both a driver and a reflection of institutional research excellence. Furthermore, it suggests aligning research priorities with academic programs, including undergraduate and post-graduate training, thereby strengthening the vital connection between research and curriculum in enabling crucial job training, internship, and economic growth opportunities. By strategically investing in essential core facilities, expanding a breadth of diverse funding streams, enhancing research support services, and recruiting renowned and promising faculty with a wide range of cross-cutting expertise, Stony Brook University is poised to leverage its interdisciplinary foundation and to seize the opportunities presented by the evolving research landscape.
The recommendations in this report provide a general roadmap to prioritize and implement key strategies identified through extensive consultation between Stony Brook leadership and faculty. These approaches are intended to be adaptable and flexible, given uncertainties in the funding landscape. By adopting and implementing these critical steps, Stony Brook University is poised to become a truly pioneering research institution, thereby unleashing a transformative future for science while elevating the university's positive impact on the world. To ensure institutional accountability, we will assess and closely monitor the execution and progress of these recommendations through a variety of widely accepted qualitative and quantitative metrics described in the report and share these outcomes with the campus community on an annual basis. In doing so, we will ensure that we can successfully meet the key milestones associated with research, training, and education, which are relevant and necessary to achieving these overall goals.
Summary of Recommendations
- Invest Strategically in Core Research Facilities: Develop and sustain robust core facilities with advanced technologies and modern equipment and dedicate staffing to support cutting-edge research. Access to these facilities should be available to all SBU faculty regardless of discipline. This includes a sustainable plan for staffing, enhanced accessibility, creation of shared space and resources, and a sustainable funding model.
- Foster and Incentivize Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration: Create a culture that fosters opportunities and events that promote collaboration across departments, provide shared resources and infrastructure, provide training and professional development, formally recognize team science in promotion and tenure criteria, and provide incentives to collaborate.
- Expand and Diversify Research Funding Streams: Proactively identify and tap into underutilized funding sources, including state, industry, and foundations, while also strategically pursuing large federal opportunities. This requires building partnerships with business and industry as well as strengthening engagement with New York state and private foundations, as well as geographically close institutions such as Brookhaven National Lab and Cold Spring Harbor Lab, and positioning ourselves to request larger investments from SUNY.
- Enhance Research Support Systems: Provide comprehensive support for proposal development
and submission, including dedicated grant writing assistance, administrative support,
centralized resources, and incentives for leading or co-leading large proposals. Improve
the functionality of research information management systems and continue to enhance
post-award support.
Strategically Invest in Faculty Recruitment and Retention: Recruit visionary leaders and address critical expertise gaps in strategic research areas through targeted hiring, including consideration of interdisciplinary expertise and non-tenure track positions. Implement strategies to retain mid-career faculty and establish clear policies for research expectations and release time.
Purpose
The landscape of scientific research is rapidly evolving, with emerging trends that hold the potential not only to advance our understanding of the world, but also to attract significant support from both government and philanthropic organizations. These trends present unique opportunities for SBU to lead groundbreaking efforts, expand our research capabilities, and secure new sources of funding for our most promising initiatives. The goal of Science Futures was to discuss these emerging scientific trends and the strategies that position SBU at the forefront of innovation. The outcomes of this effort identify key opportunities that align with our strengths and help build a unified vision for attracting the next wave of investment in scientific research.
The current uncertainties facing federal science agencies make the landscape for science funding even more difficult to predict. This requires a plan that allows the university to be nimble with the recommendations put forward and ensure they are relevant and effective during these unprecedented times. Previous initiatives like the Tiger Teams and Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) have provided a critical blueprint of our strengths and opportunities as well as recommendations, which were compiled based on input from hundreds of faculty members across the broad spectrum of disciplines at SBU. Science Futures provides a platform to develop a roadmap to prioritize and implement the key recommendations that came forward from these initiatives.
During the 2024-2025 academic year, Interim President McCormick convened a series
of conversations among a group of SBU’s top researchers and academic leaders to form
the Science Futures committee, tasked with positioning SBU at the forefront of strategic research areas.
Process
The committee met several times during the 2024–2025 academic year and was asked to imagine that it was the year 2035 and articulate the major scientific developments and contributions made by SBU during those ten years. To accomplish this, the committee reviewed prior initiatives and considered what the university's research environment needs in terms of facilities, faculty, resources, and administrative support to best enable that progress.
Background on Previous Initiatives:
To frame the discussion, materials summarizing past strategic efforts and their outcomes were shared:
- Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) (two iterations)
- Strategic Budget Initiative/Project Reimagine
- Accelerate Change (REACH)
- Research Foundation Operational Profile
- Tiger Teams (three iterations)
- SUNY STrategic Research InVEstment (STRIVE)
- PIE Initiatives (e.g., Protocenters, Center for Healthy Aging, AI³)
- Four reports on SBU’s research in identified key areas (Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum, Climate and Energy, and Biomedical Sciences)
The above initiatives have led to investments made thus far in:
- Expanding staff in the Office for Research and Innovation in pre-award (Sponsored Programs) and post-award (Grants Management) for a rapidly growing research enterprise
- Supporting faculty in the development of their proposals, particularly large, complex, and training grant proposals that have heavy administrative burdens (Office of Proposal Development)
- Recruiting faculty in priority research areas, such as SUNY Empire Innovation Program
hiring and targeted unit hires
Providing internal seed awards to stimulate interdisciplinary work, grow partnerships, and create collaborative initiatives in key areas (e.g., AI3, Quantum, Healthy Aging, etc.) - Conducting surveys to identify space needs
- Investing in high performance computing and GPUs to enable big data and AI research
Currently, new initiatives are underway to further accelerate research and amplify impact. These include:
- Enhancing research security to ensure compliance with increasingly complex research compliance requirements
- Investing in critical core facilities and research computing to support our researchers
- Contracting a DC lobbying firm to advocate for direct congressional funding and other critical federal relations activities
- Acquiring and implementing a Research Information Management System to quickly and accurately identify research activities in specific scientific areas
- Investing in expanding our sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials
Science Areas
This table lists science areas identified as opportunities through various initiatives. Detailed reports exist for areas examined by Tiger Teams. The prevalence of science areas in groupings below should not be interpreted as a qualitative indication of strength.
| Research Area | Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Computing | Biomedical Innovations, Disease Prevention, Therapeutics | Climate Change, Energy Security & Technology, Sustainability | Quantum Information Science & Technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBI Tiger Teams (2021) | ||||
| Advanced Communications | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Advanced Energy | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Advanced Materials Science | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [x] |
| Artificial Intelligence | [x] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Biotechnology | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Climate Change | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Data Storage | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| High-Performance Computing | [x] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Quantum | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [x] |
| Robotics | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Biomedical Tiger Teams (2023) | ||||
| Brain, Behavior, Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Disorders | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Cancer | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Development, Aging, and Life Span | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Drug Development, from Chemistry to Diagnostics and Therapies | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Environmental Health, Climate Change and Human Health | [ ] | [x] | [x] | [ ] |
| Immunology and Infectious Diseases | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Metabolism, Obesity, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disorders | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Technology, Computation, Biology, Medicine, and Regenerative Medicine | [x] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Climate Tiger Teams (2024) | ||||
| Climate and Environmental Medicine | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Community and Ecosystem Resilience | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Green Technologies | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Human Behavior & Decision-Making Related to Climate Change Mitigation | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Economic and Policy Challenges of Climate Change | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Warming Oceans, Modeling the Climate, and the Effects of Climate Change | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| SUNY STRIVE (2023-2025) | ||||
| Artificial Intelligence | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Biotechnology/ Biomanufacturing/ Bioengineering | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Microelectronics Packaging | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Quantum | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [x] |
| Provost Summaries (2024) | ||||
| Artificial Intelligence | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Quantum | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Climate/Energy | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [x] |
| Biomedical Sciences | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Science Futures (2025) | ||||
| Science communication | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] |
| Petroleum engineering and chemistry | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Pollution remediation | [ ] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Systems biology | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Leveraging AI and autonomy for experimentation | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
| Human behavior and decision making | [x] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
| Quantum and healthcare and imaging | [ ] | [x] | [ ] | [x] |
| Advanced information computing and quantum | [x] | [ ] | [ ] | [x] |
| Information processing and energy | [x] | [ ] | [x] | [ ] |
Prioritization
Numerous criteria for how to prioritize science areas were identified, but three in particular were determined to be most important: areas of institutional strength, funding availability, and societal impact. The following table includes metrics for these three prioritization criteria, as identified by the Science Futures members.
| Prioritization Criteria | Metrics (segmented to the area) |
|---|---|
| Institutional Strengths |
|
| Funding |
|
| Societal impact |
|
Listed below are other suggested potential criteria for prioritization:
- Uniqueness
- Economic impact
- Infrastructure and capabilities
- Build on success, future “potential”
- Maintaining science leadership
- Strategic alignment
- Potential partnerships
- Alignment with academic programs (including doctoral training)
- Impact on student learning outcomes (teaching and mentoring)
- Existing and recognized scientific strength/innovation
Key Recommendations
- Invest Strategically in Core Research Facilities - A central and consistently emphasized
recommendation is the development and sustained support of state-of-the-art core research
facilities available to Stony Brook faculty and students. This requires a multi-faceted
approach:
- Modernization and Acquisition of Advanced Technologies: Make investments to upgrade existing instrumentation, including computing technology, and acquire new, cutting-edge technologies to ensure our researchers have access to the tools necessary for globally competitive research. Potential investments could include establishing a centralized materials characterization facility and expanding services in areas like microfabrication and CRISPR-CAR-T cell technologies.
- Sustainable Staffing Plans: Create and fund a sustainable plan for staffing core facilities to ensure efficient operation, maintenance, and user support. This includes hiring and retaining skilled technical staff and providing ongoing training.
- Enhanced Accessibility and Transparency: Improve accessibility of and communication about core facilities, making it easier for all researchers – faculty and students, across all disciplines – to understand available resources and use them effectively.
- Shared Space and Resources: Create dedicated laboratory space and interdisciplinary buildings to provide the infrastructure and environment for promoting collaborative research and enabling the efficient use of central core facilities as mechanisms for securing external grant funds.
- Sustainable Funding Models: Develop sustainable funding models for core facilities to ensure their long-term viability and to avoid reliance solely on grant funding. This will also allow for lower start-up costs.
- Foster Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration - To tackle complex scientific challenges
and secure large-scale, high-impact grants, the university should cultivate a strong
culture of interdisciplinary collaboration:
- Opportunities for Collaboration: Foster collaboration through mechanisms such as interdisciplinary meetups, lecture series, and allocated time for collaborative projects.
- Shared Resources and Infrastructure: Provide shared space and resources, including interdisciplinary buildings and central research centers, that structurally facilitate interaction and collaboration.
- Training and Professional Development: Offer training and professional development opportunities focused on interdisciplinary research methodologies and ethical considerations in community engagement to equip researchers with the necessary skills for successful collaboration.
- Formal Recognition of Team Science: Formally recognize team science in promotion and tenure criteria to incentivize and value collaborative research efforts.
- Incentives for Collaboration: Offer incentives such as teaching release time and matching funds for interdisciplinary proposals and projects to encourage researchers to engage in collaborative projects.
- Expand and Diversify Research Funding Streams - Given the uncertainties in federal
science funding, expanding and diversifying funding streams is crucial for sustained
research growth:
- Targeting Underleveraged Funding Sources: Identify and pursue funding opportunities from sources where the current success rate is lower than desired, such as specific federal agencies (NASA, VA, Department of Commerce, DoD, Homeland Security) and various non-profit foundations (Gates, Mellon, Simons, Bezos, BBRF).
- Building Industry Partnerships: Build partnerships with industry (pharmaceutical, biotech, technology companies) to increase industry-funded research and create opportunities for student internships and career readiness. Engage industry representation on relevant boards and leverage existing initiatives like the Clean Energy Business Innovation Portal to facilitate these interactions.
- Strengthening Engagement with State and Foundations: Develop strategies to leverage SUNY to influence state investments in research and to more effectively pursue philanthropic funding from a wider array of foundations.
- Strategic Pursuit of Large Federal Grants: Prepare proactively for large federal solicitations (e.g., NSF initiatives, NIH Centers including translational medicine initiatives, GOALI, MRSECs, Science and Technology Centers, Engineering Research Centers) by fostering collaborations and developing well-prepared, competitive proposals.
- Enhance Research Support Systems - A robust research enterprise requires comprehensive
and efficient support systems for our faculty:
- Strengthening Proposal Development Support: Continue enhanced support for proposal development and submission through dedicated grant writing staff, enhanced administrative support, centralized resources, and incentives for leading large proposals. Leveraging external expertise can also be beneficial.
- Improving Research Information Management Systems: Enhance the functionality of MyResearch to include more comprehensive data and improve search capabilities to facilitate information access and research visibility.
- Enhancing Grants Management Expertise: Invest in training for Grants Management staff to develop expertise in federal fund management with unique reporting requirements to manage post-award administration efficiently.
- Strategically Invest in Faculty Recruitment and Retention - Attracting and retaining
outstanding faculty is fundamental to research success:
- Targeted Recruitment: Strategically recruit faculty to address critical expertise gaps in priority research areas, including those identified through previous initiatives (AI, Quantum, Climate and Energy, Biomedical Sciences) and emerging interdisciplinary fields. This includes prioritizing senior and visionary leaders, especially those who can lead new initiatives, and considering cluster hiring and joint appointments. Additionally, faculty at all levels should be recruited to help create the next generation of investigators who will be part of our Science Futures.
- Focus on Interdisciplinary Expertise: Prioritize candidates with interdisciplinary expertise when recruiting to foster collaboration across departments and colleges.
- Retention of Mid-Career Faculty: Develop strategies (including training opportunities) for the retention of mid-career faculty, incentivize research accomplishments, particularly in areas of strategic importance, to maintain research momentum.
- Clear Policies for Research Activity and Release Time: Implement clear and fair policies for faculty research expectations and release time to reduce administrative burdens on principal investigators and allow them to focus more on research.
Members
| Richard L. McCormick, PhD, Interim President Anissa Abi-Dargham, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Lourie Endowed Chair, Department of Psychiatry Ivet Bahar, PhD, Louis and Beatrice Laufer Endowed Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Director, Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology Mónica Bugallo, PhD, Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Development, and Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Sean Clouston, PhD, Professor, Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine and Program in Public Health Eden Figueroa, PhD, Presidential Innovation Endowed Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy Alfredo Fontanini, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior Kevin Gardner, PhD, Vice President for Research and Innovation, and Professor, Department of Civil Engineering Dilip Gersappe, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Christopher Gobler, PhD, Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation and Distinguished Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Robert Harrison, PhD, Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and Endowed Director, Institute for Advanced Computational Science |
Braden Hosch, PhD, Interim Chief Deputy to the President and Vice President for Educational
and Institutional Effectiveness Peter Igarashi, MD, Knapp Dean, Renaissance School of Medicine, and Professor, Department of Medicine Carl Lejuez, PhD, Executive Vice President and Provost, and Professor, Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry Heather Lynch, PhD, IACS Endowed Chair for Ecology and Evolution, and Director, Collaborative for the Earth Nina Maung-Gaona, PhD, Senior Associate Vice President for Research Development and Partnerships Yi-Xian Qin, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Co-Director, Institute for Engineering- Driven Medicine Andrew Singer, PhD, Dean, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Esther Takeuchi, PhD, William and Jane Knapp Endowed Chair in Energy and the Environment and Distinguished Professor, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, and Director, Institute of Sustainability, Electrification, and Energy Nancy Tomes, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Department of History William Wertheim, MD, Executive Vice President, Stony Brook Medicine, and Endowed Chair in Graduate Medical Education Stanislaus Wong, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry David Wrobel, PhD, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor, Department of History |
Acknowledgments
In recognition of the valuable support for this effort provided by: Jaclyn Ahearn
and Tasheka Sutton-Young, Office of the President, and Sheri L. Clark, Karrie Gash,
Samantha Fagone, and Donna Scala, Office for Research and Innovation