Research
Important GCI Update
NEW internal deadline for George Mason's Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI). See 11/25/25 email for details.
Our college's senior leadership, working with Dean Cody Edwards, seeks to connect with all college-based GCI project teams to coordinate the college's GCI proposal submissions. Submit your GCI proposal for college consideration by December 8, 2025.
Contact Pat Gillevet (pgilleve@gmu.edu) with questions.
Mason's College of Science is a research powerhouse. And we deliver.
As an R1 university—a classification for institutions with the highest level of research—Mason has the people, funding, and facilities to support broad, interdisciplinary studies, as well as specialized research. Our results-oriented scientists create and share new knowledge and develop innovative techniques that impact society, the economy, and the environment. We believe that research should be used to make a difference in our communities and the world.
The Grand Challenge Initiative — Bold Solutions for A Prosperous Future
George Mason University's Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) is a comprehensive research framework—backed by an initial five-year, $15 million investment—designed to align university resources, faculty expertise, and educational programs around six interconnected solution areas addressing humanity’s ultimate grand challenge. View FAQs for proposal submission, offering guidance on developing and submitting project ideas. For college consideration, submit your proposal by December 8, 2025.
Research with a capital “R”
World-class research universities attract world-class talent. We produce scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs who drive innovation and produce new insights that address pressing world problems and improve human life. As a result, faculty, students, and alumni of the College of Science regularly receive recognition for their work through awards, grants, and fellowships.
$45.2 million
Total research expenditures for AY 2025.
R1
Mason is the largest public top tier research university in Virginia.
33%
The college's percent of Mason's total number of research proposals, the largest share.
Molecular Medicine at Mason
At the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine’s (CAPMM), the primary emphasis of disease research is cancer, but new technologies developed in the center are being applied to a number of important human diseases. Research, like that being done at CAPMM, provides strategies for personalized treatment with the goal of providing physicians key missing molecular information about the disease in each of their patients and improving the quality of life for patients.
