Below is standardized language to use when referring to the University of Houston in grants and other applications. The following boilerplate language has been developed by the Division of Research to assist with grant writing. Investigators are advised to tailor boilerplate language to reflect the specific aims of their research project. In addition, investigators should directly contact University entities when seeking a more in-depth resource descriptions.
University Boilerplate
University of Houston
Founded in 1927, the University of Houston is the largest public research university in Houston and the third largest university in Texas, offering undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. Located in Houston’s historic Third Ward, UH has a footprint that encompasses its flagship campus in Houston and significant instructional sites in Katy and Sugar Land.
UH leads eleven externally-funded centers, comprising numerous collaborations with partner institutions and industry and sponsored by over $20 million in funding. UH also supports eight university-level centers and numerous core research facilities. The University reported $240 million in research expenditures for fiscal year 2022.
In 2011, UH was designated an R1 institution by the Carnegie Foundation for its high level of research activity. The University is home to a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and its faculty have been recognized by the National Academy of Inventors, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
UH is proudly designated as a Hispanic-serving Institution (HSI) and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving (AANAPISI) institution. In Fall 2022, UH enrolled more than 46,000 students. 45% of undergraduate students were first generation. The campus population is 52% female and 48% male. UH’s student body ranks second in the nation among research universities for its for its diversity, with no ethnic majority on campus, while also being a global university with students from 127 nations.
(More information on About UH.)Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement for Grant Proposals
As a public institution of higher education, we comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and have policies to ensure compliance. We are by our very nature a diverse institution. Specifically, the University of Houston (UH) currently enrolls approximately 46,700 students who form a highly diverse student population (33.2% Hispanic, 20.0% Caucasian, 22.1% Asian-American, 10.9% African-American, 9.4% International, and 4.4% other), many of whom are First Generation in College. As a federally designated Hispanic Serving and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution, UH recognizes its opportunity and responsibility to train at the highest level possible for the next generation of the workforce.
More specifically, UH embraces diversity and recognizes our responsibility to foster an open, welcoming environment where students, faculty, and staff of all backgrounds can collaboratively learn, work, and serve. We value the academic, social, and broader community benefits that arise from a diverse campus and are committed to providing equitable opportunities where all feel welcome. Diversity enriches our community and is a driving force instrumental to our institutional success and fulfillment of the university’s mission. We commit to engaging in an ongoing dialogue to thoughtfully respond to the changing realities of our increasingly interconnected world. We continually strive to work together to address the challenges of the future in a way that removes barriers to success and promotes a culture of compassion and mutual respect. The competencies gained through diverse experiences across campus prepare all of our students, staff, and faculty to thrive personally and professionally in a global society. Our projects will reflect these commitments.
University Centers and Institutes
Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI)
The Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) supports the transition of lab-scale technology to fully-fledged manufactured products for the market. Through highly-skilled leadership and scientists, AIM addresses manufacturing challenges and creates solutions in manufacturing R&D. Through is leading-edge laboratory, AMI has a particular focus on scaling up technologies in the areas of superconductor wire manufacturing, flexible electronics, chemical processes, polymers and automation, and bio manufacturing. AMI has been awarded more than $25 million for its research programs, including $3 million from industry sponsors, $3.5 million from the State of Texas Emerging Technology Fund and $5.6 million from the Advanced Manufacturing Office of the U.S. Department of Energy. AMI is also working to provide workforce development on advanced manufacturing technologies and will support the creation and growth of a new degree program: M.S. in Manufacturing.Center for Carbon Management in Energy (CCME)
The Center for Carbon Management in Energy (CCME) is a UH Energy creation that will have the capability and capacity at the University of Houston to meet the lower carbon future energy transition challenges. Multi-disciplined, collaborative research from the required fields of engineering and science, business, law, regulatory and policy, as well as education for the marketplace, will be strategically aligned with our industry advisory board to address the needs of oil and gas, petrochemicals, and electric power markets.
The CCME will engage directly with these marketplace challenges to reduce carbon emissions that impact the climate and in doing so provide an accretive pathway for investment in the energy transition. We believe we are uniquely situated in Houston, aligned with our university energy advisory members, and purposely linked to global external collaborators, to impact the marketplace and provide the required solutions for the future.Drug Discovery Institute (DDI)
The UH Drug Discovery Institute will define a new paradigm in academic drug discovery through multi-disciplinary collaborations that go beyond the life and physical sciences to include other disciplines such as engineering, computer science, mathematics, optometry, and many others. This multidisciplinary team will integrate new technologies, including but not limited to AI, to streamline and augment existing and emerging efforts to modernize the drug-discovery process.
To address the unmet needs of current drug discovery academic centers, the DDI will integrate AI as one of its driving forces to develop new therapeutics. Since current drug-discovery efforts at UH are largely fragmented, the DDI will bring together relevant experts under one roof to provide new resources and to facilitate synergistic research. The DDI will be an inclusive institute, welcoming faculty participants from all colleges who wish to collaborate and advance drug development.HEALTH Research Institute (HRI)
The HEALTH Research Institute leverages an interdisciplinary group of researchers at the University of Houston to advance science capable of meeting the health needs of the Houston community and beyond. Our primary mission is to conduct cutting-edge research that informs novel prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and intervention strategies that mitigate a broad range of health challenges. Our partnerships with a diverse array of stakeholders inform a growing public health challenge through multi-site cooperative trials, public health initiatives, and empowering dissemination and implementation activities that are embedded in the cultural fabric of the communities we serve.Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute (HPE DSI)
The University of Houston’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute(HPE DSI), in collaboration with departments and colleges, leads research, education, and service activities in the broad area of data science and scientific computing and their applications. This includes application areas that are important to the Houston economy: energy and health. Research in data science will range from foundational research in data science and scientific computing to key application areas, including UH Research Thrusts: cyber and physical security, drug development and discovery, sustainable communities and infrastructure and accessible and personalized health care.Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI)
The Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI) is a multi-state, multi-organization national center of excellence in resilience advancing our nation's ability to mitigate, assess, predict, protect, educate and recovery from hurricanes and severe storms for the purpose of creating and sustaining resilient communities. The mission of HuRRI is to serve as the premier resource for envisioning, promoting and institutionalizing hurricane resilience culture, knowledge, solutions and tools.
The main goal of HuRRI is to change the paradigm from wait-and-pay to system-wide anticipate-and-accommodate as a framework for hurricane and severe storm resilience.
There are six founding Gulf Coast institutions of higher education in HuRRI: Lousiana State University, Texas Tech University, University of Florida, University of Houston, University of Miami, University of Texas at Tyler.Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH)
TcSUH is a large multidisciplinary university-based superconductivity and advanced materials research center. We have over 200 faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, and visiting scholars from five departments who work to discover and improve new materials, advance science and engineering, and transfer breakthroughs in technology to the industrial sector, impacting the emerging HTS electric power community, the medical community and other sectors. The Center’s multidisciplinary research programs are training the next generation of scientists and engineers.
TcSUH alumni play key leadership roles in U.S. and international industries, government laboratories and universities. We are housed in the Houston Science Center and several other buildings on the University of Houston campus. The Center draws personnel from the departments of physics, chemistry, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and chemical and biomolecular engineering that create and develop high temperature superconducting (HTS) and advanced materials and further their fundamental understanding, and applications. We have spun off four national research centers and six start-up companies.Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics (TIMES)
The Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES) advances knowledge about, and improves the behavioral, psychological, educational and developmental outcomes of children and adults through the application and development of high quality, cutting-edge research methods, and the delivery of state-of-the art research and statistical support services. In addition, TIMES promotes, develops, and advances statistical knowledge and its application in research and decision making, and operates as a university-based resource in measurement, evaluation, and statistics for faculty and administrators.
TIMES provides essential research support services in four major areas. These include the design of advanced quasi-experimental studies, such as those used for researching developmental and educational questions in natural settings (e.g., such as children in classrooms), as well as the design of more traditional “true” experimental studies.
TIMES specializes in the application of advanced statistical models for (a) measuring longitudinal outcomes (e.g., student growth), (b) predicting risk and failure (e.g., predicting poor student outcomes at the earliest possible point in development), (c) measuring key constructs and their impact on desired outcomes (e.g., assessing the importance of teacher behaviors in advancing student achievement), and (d) modeling institutional effectiveness (e.g., evaluating the efficacy of school wide reform efforts).
TIMES is a leader in the use of advanced psychometric models and technology tools to create research instruments. TIMES supports the primary data collection efforts of researchers and educators through (a) automated data entry, (b) electronic data storage, (c) computerized data management, and (d) essential reporting services.
Central Core Facilities
Animal Behavior Core
The Animal Behavior Core (ABC) facility occupies approximately 2,000 square feet of area on the UH campus, encompassing 11 separate testing rooms. The mission of the ABC is to help researchers advance their research, product development, training, and education. The ABC is available to all UH researchers that would like to use ABC equipment or want to request rodent behavioral testing.
The ABC facility offers the UH research community access to equipment, training and services used to test behavior in rodents utilizing specialized state-of-the-art equipment. The facility includes Noldus software and hardware products innovatively designed for the measurement and analysis of mouse and rat behavior, including Ethovision XT-Mouse and Rat Behavior Recognition modules, Elevated Plus Mazes and Morris Water Mazes. The ABC also offers services including consultation on experimental design, implementation and statistical analysis.
External clients may request a full range of behavioral testing services offered by the UH ABC.Animal Care Operations
The Animal Care Operations (ACO) at UH provides professional veterinary, medical, husbandry, and proposal review services. ACO is dedicated to ensuring the utmost welfare and well-being of every animal entrusted to its care. By relentlessly upholding these standards, ACO aims to create a harmonious environment where animals flourish and thrive, setting a new standard of excellence in the field.
AAALAC International, a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation and assessment programs, has accredited the University of Houston since 1986. The University of Houston is also USDA registered and OLAW assured.
ACO serves all investigators engaged in biomedical science research, providing protocol review, experimental assistance with advance techniques such as inhalation anesthesia, and individualized training.Digital Humanities Core
The Digital Humanities Core (DHC) facility exists to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary research and build communities of practice around modern digital research methodologies. Established in 2022 as a partnership between the HPE Data Science Institute and UH Libraries and further supported by the UH Core Facility initiative, the DHC serves researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students through technological infrastructure, education, and programming. The DHC works closely with the Libraries’ Digital Research Commons and provides the technical support to enable research and scholarship in the digital humanities.
DHC staff partners with faculty and students in the humanities, social sciences, and experimental sciences on digital research projects of all sizes, working with individuals and teams from the earliest stages of project conception and planning to publication and beyond. With a focus on project planning and management and customized services to help implementation and technical proficiencies, project partnerships last for one academic year with the possibility of renewal.
The Digital Humanities Core offers micro-credentialing programs along three tracks. Faculty and doctoral students apply directly through the DHC, while instructors can engage the DHC to embed credentialing curricula into their graduate or undergraduate courses. At the culmination of the micro-credentialing program, one earns a Foundations in Digital Humanities Project Development Certificate.Electron Microscopy Core
The Electron Microscopy Core (EMC) facility is currently under development and has a projected completion date of Summer or Fall 2024. It will provide university-wide services for electron microscopy including capabilities for a wide range of spectroscopies for chemical analysis. The EMC will serve the UH community, as well as external users from academia, government (state and federal) and industry.
This core facility will be equipped with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), a plasma Focus Ion Beam (pFIB), a conventional Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Aberration Corrected TEM (AC-TEM). The resolution of these instruments allows samples to be analyzed to the atomic resolution in both imaging and spectroscopy. The SEM is already operating. The facility is capable of conducting conventional microscopy, tomography, advanced hardware and software for image analysis, and in-situ testing. If you require access, training or further information about the equipment or the facility. Please contact Dr. Francisco C. Robles Hernandez at: fcrobles@uh.edu.Research Computing Data Core
The Research Computing Data Core (RCDC) houses the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute (HPE DSI) resources to advance high-performance computing at the University of Houston. The Carya Sabine high-performance computing clusters are currently available to the UH faculty, students and staff for research. Most resources are free of charge. RCDC staff offer UH researchers free consultation and training, and graduate students are especially welcome.
Throughout the year, HPE DSI staff teaches classes at various levels on different aspects of HPC and data science - free to UH faculty, staff, and students. Staff meet one-on-one with anyone interested in getting help in using data science approaches in their research, improving the performance of their code, looking for new algorithms, or seeking help to implement them.
Carya
Carya houses public CPU and GPU nodes with shared access to storage resources. It hosts a total of 14,392 Intel CPU cores and 64 NVIDIA Volta GPUs integrated within 297 compute and 20 GPU nodes. All nodes are equipped with solid-state drives (SSD) for local high-performance data storage. This will offer the fastest disk-based I/O on Carya.
Sabine
The Sabine cluster offers a total of 179 compute nodes and 11 NVIDIA VOLTA and PASCAL GPU nodes, with 5,676 cores and 36 TB of main memory within HPE Proliant nodes. The cluster nodes are connected via Intel OmniPath switch with a 100 Gb per second Line Rate. The cluster has a shared NFS storage of ~725 TB.Texas Center for Superconductivity
TcSUH occupies more than 60,000 square feet of space in 3 buildings on the University of Houston campus. The facilities house over 25 million dollars in equipment dedicated to the fabrication and analysis of superconductor materials, processing and characterization of compound semiconductors, advanced oxide material systems, and advancement of thin film deposition techniques.
The equipment is a combination of commercial and custom built systems that allow the production of high temperature superconductors (HTS) and state-of-the-art thin film material structures and devices. Administration offices and a majority of the laboratory space is located in the University of Houston Science Center, with equipment and research project offices in Science and Research Building One and the Cullen College of Engineering. TcSUH administrative operations include lab management and technical personnel.
Large scale facility infrastructure is supported by University of Houston, and the Center's IT is integrated with the UH LAN with data and communication protected behind a robust campus firewall.