2024: A Year of Growth
We are excited to share this annual report from the Division of Research and Economic Development at Boise State University. This report highlights our growing research and creative activity portfolio, which saw awards exceed $83 million this fiscal year. Expenditures nearly doubled over ten years to exceed $70 million, showcasing our commitment to driving innovation and impactful projects across a wide range of disciplines. This document outlines the foundational expertise that elevates Boise State’s research communities to new levels of creativity and collaboration.
Message from the Vice President: Nancy Glenn
It brings me great joy to present our inaugural Annual Report on Research and Creative Activity at Boise State University. But this isn’t just a report—it’s a celebration of the remarkable achievements and discoveries driven by our research and creative activity community. From the groundbreaking research initiatives undertaken this year to the substantial contributions of our faculty, staff and students, Boise State research is advancing knowledge and powering economic development in real time.
Our institution is dedicated to fostering a culture of discovery, collaboration and excellence. Through strategic investments in cutting-edge research infrastructure and strong partnerships with industry, government and other academic institutions, we continue to position ourselves at the forefront of innovation.
I am deeply grateful for the support and commitment of the Division of Research and Economic Development staff and all units across campus that contribute to and support research and creative activities. In 2024, the Division of Research and Economic Development has been instrumental in helping our campus navigate the research and creative activity process, from discovering funding and ensuring compliance to preparing and submitting extramural proposals, negotiating awards, managing ongoing projects, and sharing success stories.
As we celebrate the past year’s achievements, we’re energized and ready to amplify our efforts. Our campus-wide dedication to advancing the frontiers of knowledge is invaluable. Together, we will continue shaping a brighter future through research and innovation.
Go Broncos!
Division Introduction
Imagine a place where ideas take flight, where students and faculty explore new frontiers of knowledge, and where creativity and innovation are nurtured. This is the essence of the Division of Research and
Economic Development at Boise State University.
About Us
Mission
The Division of Research and Economic Development is committed to cultivating an environment where education through research, scholarly endeavor and creative activity thrives.
We provide comprehensive support for faculty, staff and student research and creative activity, guide research strategic directions, manage the university’s intellectual property portfolio, facilitate relationships with stakeholders, and lead economic development and innovation.
Vision
Our vision is to lead the university’s student-centered research and creative activity enterprise, advancing quality projects and innovative pursuits.
Guiding Values Statement
We will uphold the university’s values through promotion of collaboration across the research enterprise, thereby building inclusive partnerships, both internally and externally.
What We Do
We remain steadfast to our three pillars of research and creative activity endeavors:
- Technology and Innovation
- Health and Wellbeing
- Environment and Natural Resources
Offices within the Division
- Center for Research and Creative Activity
- Research Enterprise Services
- Office of Research Compliance
- Office of Technology Transfer
Strategic Plan Implementation and Objectives
Goal #1
Operationalize and scale research support infrastructure within and beyond the Division of Research and Economic Development.
Goal 1: Objective 1
Incentivize campus units external to the Division to operationalize research in their processes, policies and procedures
- Modernized the Division’s digital presence
- Enhanced research security
- Innovated support and policy related to research and creative activity
Goal 1: Objective 2
Prepare Boise State to be competitive and compelling in the funding market
- Bolstered the Division’s support teams for campus
- Strengthened research integrity for campus
- Empowered researchers with new training opportunities
Goal 1: Objective 3
Streamline and advance the quality of Division services to campus
- Streamlined research administration with innovative software systems
- Advanced Boise State data infrastructure
- Enhanced collaboration between Division units
Goal #2
Create a culture where our people are thriving in their professional roles, contributing to our mission and are proud to work at Boise State.
Goal 2: Objective 1
Create a shared vision
- Strengthened strategic focus on shared goals and objectives in the Division
- Standardized hiring practices within the Division
Goal 2: Objective 2
Define and support meaningful career paths in the Division
- Laid the foundation for a thriving future through unit-wide career pathing
Goal 2: Objective 3
Develop leadership team and members
- Identified key priorities for leadership team in line with Division’s Strategic Plan
Goal 2: Objective 4
Increase impact and recognition of work
- Showcased Research and Creative Activity excellence through robust communications efforts
- Recognized Division employee excellence
Goal #3
Grow and diversify a sustained strategic portfolio that advances student excellence and funded research and creative activity.
Goal 3: Objective 1
Innovate and grow industry and entrepreneurship in research
- Enhanced visibility of Boise State Industry Partnerships with strategic communications efforts
- Grow support programs to enable entrepreneurship
Goal 3: Objective 2
Facilitate and support industry connections
- Forged strategic alliances with key Idaho partners
Goal 3: Objective 3
Use the Center for Research and Creative Activity to grow scholarship
- Empowered faculty through informative funding workshops
- Facilitated networking for faculty and staff through mixers and connection events
Goal 3: Objective 4
Create synergistic opportunities for entrepreneurial, economic and other activities
- Enhanced community impact by forging strategic partnerships
Goal 3: Objective 5
Leverage centers, institutes and similar research facilities to drive thematic research
- Developed a Strategic Plan to support centers, institutes, recharge centers and CORE facilities
Fiscal Year 2024 Highlights
Highlights include:
- Top Award Funding Sources
- Top Federal Expenditures
- Award and Expenditures
Top Award Funding Sources
59%
23%
13%
Top Federal Expenditures
27%
14%
12%
10%
6%
Awards and Expenditures
*FY2023 Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey Research Expenditures
$83+
392
$70+
$53
FY2024 National Science Foundation Career Award Recipients
26
3
Ten Year Growth
Total Awards by Fiscal Year
$74.9M, which is aligned with our historical growth. Using the modified FY2023 total, the FY2024
Award total of $83.4M exceeds the expected annual projected growth.
Total Expenditures by Fiscal Year
FY2024 Award Detail
Awards by Source
- 59% Federal
- 23% Federal Flow-Through
- 13% State
- 4% Non-Profit
- 1% Other (Including Private)
Research and Creative Activity Spotlights
Solving Grand Challenges Requires Daring Collaboration
How do we create an Idaho that is healthier for everyone? How can we make urban and rural systems more resilient and sustainable in the face of unprecedented growth and climate crises?
Grand Challenges like these are urgent, societally-relevant issues that require creativity and transdisciplinary collaboration to answer. At Boise State, we’ve committed to answering these questions by connecting expert scholars and creating partnerships across sectors.
Learn more about Boise State’s Grand ChallengesBoise State faculty, students, collaborators, and community partners are engaged in two specific Grand Challenges: The Resource Nexus for Sustainability and Healthy Idaho
Boise State Grand Challenges
Introducing the BlueWater Initiative at Boise State University
In Spring 2024, Boise State launched the BlueWater Initiative, an interdisciplinary effort uniting scholars across campus to build new educational programs, empower groundwater research and serve Idaho and the nation’s stakeholders dedicated to preserving our most cherished resource: water.
Professor is cataloging decades of religious fashion history: His research landed him on Broadway
By Anna Webb
“Doubt: A Parable,” a play by John Patrick Shanley, unfolds in the 1960s in a Catholic school in the Bronx. Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a member of the Sisters of Charity of New York who is principal of the school, suspects a charismatic priest of inappropriate behavior with a student. The story explores moral uncertainty, faith, power dynamics and gender roles. The play became a movie in 2008 starring Meryl Streep and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
“Doubt” is having its stage revival in New York City. Stars Tyne Daly and Zoe Kazan are wearing habits tailored by Associate Professor Darrin Pufall Purdy, director of University Theatre and Costume Design at Boise State.
The opportunity came to him thanks to his research project, writing a first-of-its-kind field guide to the traditional habits of 12 orders of American “women religious,” or nuns and sisters. The guide will help designers recreate historically accurate costumes for film, theater and television. Perhaps as significant, it will preserve elements of Catholic history, women’s history and fashion history.
Because of his familiarity with “Doubt,” Pufall Purdy reached out first to the Sisters of Charity of New York. The community invited him to the Bronx and, in 2021, with the help of a grant from the College of Arts and Sciences, he began his research. Pufall Purdy used the few remaining pieces of the historic habits in the order’s archive to create paper patterns and a faithful reproduction of the full garment. He consulted with Sister Elizabeth Vermaelen S.C., now in her 90s, who wore the habit for nearly two decades until 1968 when Vatican II allowed orders to adopt modern dress.
Pufall Purdy’s research made him an expert on the way the Sisters of Charity once dressed. So, when the producers of the New York revival of “Doubt” contacted the order in summer 2023, the sisters sent them to Pufall Purdy.
“This experience has evolved into a deeply personal journey, blending my artistic passion with the spiritual values ingrained in me from a young age,” Pufall Purdy said. “Beyond costume design, this work serves as a tribute to those devoted to a life of service. Creating the iconic habits for the first Broadway revival of “Doubt” expresses my respect for the sisters, allowing me to reflect on the person I’ve always been — a believer in faith, community, and the art of storytelling.”
Read the full story: Professor is cataloging decades of religious fashion historyResearch and Creative Activity Spotlights
A New Center Enhances Research and Opportunity for Biomedical Industry in Idaho
A five-year, $10.2 million award from the National Institutes of Health will support the establishment of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Convergent Engineering and Biomolecular Science (CEBS) at Boise State University. The grant supports collaborative projects among faculty and with industry across biomedical and engineering disciplines that focus on the development of biomedical devices, sensors and systems.
A Consortium to Advance Dairy Processing and Feed the World
Boise State leads Dairy Nutrisols, one of seven multidisciplinary teams from across the U.S. to combat hunger with a three-year award of $5 million from the National Science Foundation
Convergence Accelerator Track J: Food & Nutrition Security program.
Boise State Bolsters Regional Innovation with NSF-supported TRANSFORM Project
Boise State is honored to be one of eighteen academic institutions in the nation to be selected to participate in the National Science Foundation’s new Accelerating Research Translation program.
This four-year, $6 million grant will allow Boise State’s TRANSFORM project to expand support for translational research and creative activities across the university, impacting the region and nation.
Boise State Research in The Conversation
In Fiscal Year 2024, 18 Boise State University experts shared critical research and insight with the world through 27 articles published in The Conversation U.S. There were over 1,255,916 reads of Boise State articles.
Read Boise State’s articles in the ConversationLeadership Team
Behind every successful venture stands a remarkable team. Great leadership turns vision into reality and empowers every step of the journey
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Nancy Glenn
Vice President for Research and Economic Development
Nancy Glenn leads the Boise State University research enterprise. She oversees research policy and strategy for the university, sets strategic priorities for the Division, and works with faculty, staff, community and industry partners to engage in the excitement of knowledge discovery and the research process.
Nancy Glenn leads the Boise State University research enterprise. She oversees research policy and strategy for the university, sets strategic priorities for the Division, and works with faculty, staff, community and industry partners to engage in the excitement of knowledge discovery and the research process.
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Jana LaRosa
Assistant Vice President, Research Advancement and Strategy
Jana LaRosa directs the Center for Research and Creative Activity, a support center connecting faculty to responsive and integrative resources that enhance success in research mobilization, cross-campus and community connectivity, and growth and success as research leaders through tactical support in research development, education and training, and programmatic sustainability measures.
Jana LaRosa directs the Center for Research and Creative Activity, a support center connecting faculty to responsive and integrative resources that enhance success in research mobilization, cross-campus and community connectivity, and growth and success as research leaders through tactical support in research development, education and training, and programmatic sustainability measures.
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Matt Smith
Assistant Vice President, Research Enterprise Services
Matt Smith directs Research Enterprise Services, comprising two offices, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration Systems and Analytics. He is responsible for operationalizing and scaling research and creative activity support throughout the sponsored project life cycle, including customer service, personnel and systems infrastructure, compliance, reporting and growing industry, community and international partnerships.
Matt Smith directs Research Enterprise Services, comprising two offices, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration Systems and Analytics. He is responsible for operationalizing and scaling research and creative activity support throughout the sponsored project life cycle, including customer service, personnel and systems infrastructure, compliance, reporting and growing industry, community and international partnerships.
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Matt Lundgren
Assistant Vice President, Research Integrity and Infrastructure
Matt Lundgren leads the Office of Research Compliance guiding research integrity and compliance programs ranging from biosafety, animal care and human subjects research to research security, research integrity and research misconduct. He also supports operationalizing and scaling physical research space and infrastructure.
Matt Lundgren leads the Office of Research Compliance guiding research integrity and compliance programs ranging from biosafety, animal care and human subjects research to research security, research integrity and research misconduct. He also supports operationalizing and scaling physical research space and infrastructure.
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Brett Adkins
Director, Office of Technology Transfer
Brett Adkins leads the Office of Technology Transfer. He supports research and creative activities and manages the university’s industry relations and intellectual property commercialization for Boise State University.
Brett Adkins leads the Office of Technology Transfer. He supports research and creative activities and manages the university’s industry relations and intellectual property commercialization for Boise State University.
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Roger Brown
Director, Economic Development and Community Affairs
Roger Brown manages economic development and community affairs for Boise State University. He supports economic growth and related activity with corporations, associations, government and other community organizations in support of university units, faculty, staff and students.
Roger Brown manages economic development and community affairs for Boise State University. He supports economic growth and related activity with corporations, associations, government and other community organizations in support of university units, faculty, staff and students.
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Megan Daigneau
Senior Business Operations Manager
Megan Daigneau leads the Division’s shared Administration and Communication teams. She oversees budgetary and operations matters and assists the leadership team in identifying, developing and implementing the Division’s strategic plan to achieve set goals and objectives.
Megan Daigneau leads the Division’s shared Administration and Communication teams. She oversees budgetary and operations matters and assists the leadership team in identifying, developing and implementing the Division’s strategic plan to achieve set goals and objectives.
The Division of Research and Economic Developement
The Division of Research and Economic Development delivers a wide range of support services for research and creative activity projects at Boise State University.
Explore the Division of Research Today!