At Montclair State, research is a thriving enterprise dedicated to creating new knowledge and developing innovative applications of existing knowledge in everything from astrophysics to environmental sustainability.
This commitment to dynamic, cutting-edge research has earned Montclair State the designation of R2 Doctoral University – High Research Activity – from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the national standard for college and university classifications. The R2 designation, which succeeds an earlier R3 – Research Doctoral University – designation, recognizes the ongoing expansion of Montclair State’s research portfolio and doctoral program offerings.
Since 2016, Montclair State has also been a designated a New Jersey public research university.
Research Areas
University faculty researchers and staff engage in a wide range of leading-edge projects, including fruitful collaborations with colleagues from around the state, nation and world. Research areas of interest include:
- Antibiotic resistance
- Antimalarial treatments
- Astrophysics
- Autism
- Biofuels
- Cancer
- Character development in scouts
- Clean energy
- Diversifying New Jersey’s teacher pipeline
- Ecosystems
- Environmental sustainability
- Flooding risks
- Gravitational-wave astronomy
- Internet censorship
- Neuroscience
- Preventing sexual violence
- Rare diseases
- School choice
- Sicilian monuments
- Speech disorders
- STEM teaching and learning
- Substance abuse
- Suicide prevention
- Teacher retention
- And many more
Fostering Collaboration
Worldwide access to the output of University researchers through online portals encourages further research efforts and collaborations. These include:
Research with Montclair – a free, public, searchable online gateway to research conducted at the University – advances collaboration, discovery and innovation by connecting University researchers across disciplines, institutions, government and industry. The portal is part of the University’s partnership with Research with New Jersey, a scientific database launched in 2018 by Governor Phil Murphy to support scientific collaboration and the growth of New Jersey’s innovation economy.
The Montclair State University Digital Commons preserves and showcases University research under a single, open-access digital umbrella.
Grant Funded Projects
Montclair State researchers have attracted major grant funding from a diverse group of federal, state, local, private and international sources. In fiscal year 2018 alone, researchers received 84 grants totaling nearly $18 million. For the first half of fiscal year 2019, awards totaled $7.5 million, including $2.6 million in federal funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Recent funding support has been awarded by organizations such as:
- American Psychological Foundation
- Delaware Watershed Research Fund/William Penn Foundation
- John Templeton Foundation
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
- New Jersey Council for the Humanities
- New Jersey Department of Education
- New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
- PSEG Foundation
- Simons Foundation
- Spencer Foundation
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- S. Department of Agriculture
- S. Department of Education
- S. Environmental Protection Agency
- William T. Grant Foundation
University Support for Researchers
Montclair State offers faculty, staff and student researchers support and guidance through: