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Research plays an important role in the discovery of ways our nation can advance and strengthen its priorities in education, health, science and engineering. Through collaboration with those from multi-disciplinary perspectives, amazing solutions can emerge. ORAU’s research enterprise offers opportunities to connect with the diversity of research excellence offered by its internationally known subject matter experts and its 150+ member universities.

With our university partnerships spanning more than seven decades, ORAU offers many ways to create partnerships to explore and develop innovative solutions for some of our nation’s most pressing issues.

Building a Research Agenda—Enabling Greater Effectiveness and Efficiency in Government (A Virtual Collaboration)

This is a joint effort of ORAU and The MITRE Corporation, and represents the first in a series of information sessions to develop a research agenda framework.

ORAU and MITRE have joined forces on assisting the government in developing a research agenda framework that supports the key drivers of transformation: IT Modernization – Data, Accountability and Transparency – People/Workforce for the 21st Century. ORAU and MITRE wish to lay the foundation for where government operations and services need to be in 5, 10, and 20 years. The output of this Research Agenda is designed to inform the government in its development of the 2021 Learning Agenda and set up the framework for more detailed research with the proposed OMB Government Effectiveness Advanced Research (GEAR) Center initiative in 2021. 

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    Research in progress: Finding the links between COVID-19 health risk disparities and air pollutant exposures

    ORAU and University of Houston researchers examine how stay-at-home/safer-at-home orders have impacted human activity and pollutant concentrations, particularly in underserved communities.

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    Perspective: Ending the stigma of addiction through the power of words

    ORAU researchers are helping journalists and other media members understand how the power of words can help reduce the stigma of opioid use disorder, which is caused by underlying, and usually incorrect, beliefs about addiction and recovery.

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    Is social media helping or hindering vaccination rates?

    That’s the question ORAU researchers asking. Members of ORAU’s Health Communications and Marketing Team are collaborating with the University of Georgia to analyze social media conversations across three major vaccine types—childhood immunizations, HPV, and seasonal influenza—to better inform communication strategies aimed at decreasing hesitancy and increasing vaccination rates.

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    ‘Silver Wave’ rising

    A silver wave is coming. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2035 adults over age 65 will outnumber children under age 18 for the first time in history. This group of older adults is living longer, and their longevity will necessitate preparing for gerontological issues—health, societal, infrastructure, financial and other impacts—that will result. ORAU is working to address this.

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Research sponsorships

ORAU invests in research through such programs as ORAU-Directed Research Development (ODRD), which serve as a feeder for eventual new sponsored research that can be jointly performed by ORAU and its partner universities. ORAU awards up to $150,000 annually for innovative researched-based approaches/solutions that fall within the intersection of core capabilities of ORAU and our member universities research interests. Annual proposals are typically due in late February.

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    Developing computer simulations to improve disaster planning in rural communities

    Envisioning disaster planning and its influence on disaster management as a complex system-of-systems will allow researchers at ORAU and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop computer simulations to improve disaster planning in rural communities.

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    Could immersive virtual reality provide a path to increased flu vaccination rates?

    Imagine you are in a restaurant enjoying a quiet dinner with friends when someone sneezes, spreading the influenza virus to the people around him. That’s the beginning of an immersive virtual reality simulation that shows how flu spreads and impacts the health of other people. Researchers at ORAU and the University of Georgia hope such simulations will encourage more people to get a flu vaccine.

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Contact us

If you have questions about ORAU's Research partnerships, contact 865.576.1717 or .