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Research

Research drives NC State’s culture of innovation. Graduate students are the engine that powers that research.

The Innovation Engine

As a preeminent research enterprise, NC State has developed a reputation as a place where faculty and students find bold solutions to the challenges facing North Carolina, the country, and the world. Our graduate students play a vital role in building and expanding that reputation; their work powers cutting-edge research in safety and security, health and well-being, energy and environmental issues, and educational innovation.

We invest in our graduate students, providing financial support via assistantships, fellowships, tuition support and health insurance coverage to more than 3,300 master’s and doctoral students. This funding frees students to focus on the hands-on research that makes the NC State graduate experience exceptional.

That experience prepares our graduate students to take the next step, whether they’re going to work in their given fields, pursuing further study, or joining academia to shape the next generation of thinkers and doers.

Work With World Leaders

Our faculty features world-leading minds. Our 2,850-member graduate faculty includes 23 National Academies members and scholars who’ve earned honors from the White House, NASA and the National Science Foundation.

On the global stage, these researchers are recognized leaders. On campus, they’re the mentors who guide graduate students every day. Graduate students and faculty members work together across disciplines, forming relationships that support our graduates into their careers. In our 160+ graduate programs, faculty experts help students reach their potential — and exceed it.

The grand challenges don’t conform to traditional disciplinary boundaries, and neither does our approach to research. Our pioneering faculty clusters program brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum in 20 emerging interdisciplinary fields such as bioinformatics, translational regenerative medicine, genetic engineering and society, and carbon electronics. The faculty clusters program brings together graduate students to break disciplinary barriers, too.

Powerful Partnerships

No single entity can solve the complicated problems that face our state, nation and world. That’s why NC State is committed to building research partnerships with government, industry, nonprofit and and other educational institutions. Those partnerships give our graduate students access to a rich network of knowledge and professional development resources.

NC State leads seven federal research hubs devoted to six major issues: developing smart energy sources and next-generation power electronics, building nanotech health monitoring devices, confronting climate change, curbing nuclear proliferation and harnessing the power of big data. At those hubs and in more than 60 other interdisciplinary research centers and institutes, doctoral and master’s students are intimately involved in cutting-edge research.

More than 70 government and industry partners keep steady presences on Centennial Campus, NC State’s national-model research campus that promotes public-private collaboration. The quality and expertise of our graduate students are a big part of why those organizations choose to locate here. Policymakers and business leaders want access to the incredibly talented group of students who study here.

NC State is also a partner in the nearby Research Triangle Park, home to 200 industry-leading firms in pharmaceuticals, electronics, telecommunications, biotechnology, chemistry and environmental sciences.