UConn Faculty Hiring Initiative
Building on UConn’s established record of discovery and innovation, the University and the State of Connecticut are coming together to invest more than $100 million in a multi-year faculty hiring initiative.
A Transformative Investment in the Next Chapter of UConn
This significant commitment will support the recruitment of new faculty while strengthening the research infrastructure, facilities, and academic environments that enable faculty and students to do their best work. Building on UConn’s existing strengths, the investment advances the goals of Envisioning 2034, UConn’s strategic plan, including expanding the University’s research impact and helping power a thriving Connecticut.
Through a series of faculty hiring initiatives, UConn is bringing together scholars, disciplines, and resources to accelerate discovery, deepen interdisciplinary collaboration, and advance transformative teaching. We invite scholars whose work will complement the expertise already thriving at UConn and open new possibilities for research, education, and engagement.
Expanding a Community of Scholars
UConn faculty are already doing consequential work in Connecticut and around the world. These hiring initiatives will add capacity to that community and create new connections among scholars whose work may not otherwise intersect.
The initiatives differ in focus and funding, but they are part of the same broader effort: to give faculty more ways to pursue ambitious work and increase the impact of UConn scholarship and research.
Collaboration Across Boundaries
At UConn, faculty work across disciplines, campuses, and communities. New faculty will join established networks of scholars and find opportunities to collaborate across schools, colleges, institutes, centers, and clinical and community partnerships.
Faculty Hiring Initiatives
UConn faculty will develop proposals for individual hires or groups of related hires through the initiatives below. Each proposal will be submitted by the dean of the participating school or college and reviewed by the Office of the Provost. Proposals that bring together faculty from different disciplines are strongly encouraged.
Approved proposals will lead to faculty searches over the next several years. As searches open, positions will be posted here for prospective candidates.
UConn faculty and staff can view the full hiring initiative document and procedures.
Top Tier Faculty
The Top Tier Faculty initiative will bring exceptional scholars to UConn in areas where a transformative appointment can elevate the University’s research and extend its impact. The initiative is especially well suited to work that reaches across conventional academic boundaries or draws together complementary strengths already present at UConn.
Potential areas of focus include health and well-being across the lifespan, technology in service of humanity, sustainable communities, learning in the digital age, economic opportunity, national resilience, and fundamental discovery. These examples are not intended to limit the initiative. UConn will also consider other fields in which an appointment could reshape an area of inquiry or open a promising new direction.
UConn plans to recruit at least 10 faculty members through this initiative over the next three to five years.
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Faculty
The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Faculty initiative will recruit scholars with a record of moving ideas beyond their point of origin. Their work may have led to a startup or produced intellectual property. It may have shaped an industry partnership or created measurable public benefit. Innovative scholarship and creative activity with demonstrated societal impact are also central to the initiative.
Examples of Candidate Experience:
- Startup creation
- Technology commercialization
- Industry partnerships
- Intellectual property and licensing results
- Translational research outcomes
- Public-private partnerships
- Innovative scholarship or creative activity with demonstrated societal impact
These faculty will help strengthen the path from discovery to application at UConn. In doing so, they will contribute to Connecticut’s innovation economy and create new opportunities for students to see how ideas become solutions.
Artificial intelligence is an initial area of emphasis. UConn is particularly interested in work that connects AI with fintech, cybersecurity, pharmaceutical sciences, health, and other fields. This also includes scholarship that examines how AI is changing culture, work, institutions, and public life, as well as research addressing its ethical and societal implications. Proposals that establish place-based AI expertise at UConn Stamford will receive priority consideration. Other areas aligned with Connecticut’s workforce needs and UConn’s strategic priorities will also be considered.
UConn plans to recruit at least 10 faculty members through this initiative over the next three to five years.
Quantum Futures Cluster Hire
The Quantum Futures Cluster Hire will establish an interdisciplinary community of scholars working at the frontiers of quantum science and technology. It builds on expertise already present at UConn and responds to growing public investment in the field.
The first phase will focus on quantum materials chemistry, materials and device fabrication, quantum devices and sensors, and the mathematical foundations of quantum algorithms and cryptography. A second phase is expected to extend the cluster into networking, communications, and photonics. It will also explore applications in fields where UConn has complementary expertise, including financial technology, pharmaceutical sciences, and genomics.
The initial cluster will connect four faculty across the College of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. As it expands, it will also draw on expertise in other disciplines across the university.
UConn plans to recruit eight to 10 faculty members through the cluster over the next three to five years.
Why UConn?
UConn is a leading public research university where faculty pursue ambitious ideas in a collaborative and supportive academic environment. Across its campuses, the University offers access to interdisciplinary colleagues, advanced research facilities, talented students, and partnerships that extend throughout Connecticut and beyond.
Faculty at UConn contribute to a community committed to excellence in research, teaching, mentorship, and public engagement—while helping shape the University’s next chapter.
The world moves forward Because of UConn, and all we do is possible Because of You.