A group of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have formed a new association designed to elevate their research profiles.
The Association of HBCU Research Institutions (AHRI) was announced late last month and includes 15 HBCUs.
AHRI Board Chair David W. Wilson, Ed.D., president of Morgan State University said conversations around the idea began a few years ago when he and other HBCU leaders were in discussions with a Silicon Valley executive about providing support for computer science and engineering students at their schools. Those conversations led to discussions about a partnership with the Association of American Universities in 2021.
From there, Wilson said, the group began having discussions around creating a stronger support system for the HBCUs that are best poised to achieve Research 1 (R1) status—a designation given to institutions with research budgets of more than $70 million annually and which award 70 or more doctorates annually. Currently only one HBCU, Howard University in Washington, D.C., has achieved (R1) status.
Our goal is that in five years, there will be several HBCUs that will have annual research expenditures of $100 million.
David W. Wilson, Morgan State University
“We have the highest degree of respect for all 102 HBCUs, but one of the things that the sector had allowed itself to do was to have the public think that every one of the 102 institutions was the same,” Wilson said. “But we’re not the same. We’re not a monolith.”
As AHRI gets started, it will have the benefit of office space within AAU’s Washington, D.C., offices, as well as a $1.05 million grant from Harvard University from its Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, which in part dedicates funds for HBCU partnerships and research scholarships. “AAU has been very, very generous in offering in kind support to us in a way where a startup association would need in order for us to move forward and be able to sustain ourselves,” Wilson said.
In the short term, AHRI is hoping to elevate more member schools to R1 status. Howard was awarded that spot by the Carnegie Foundation in 2025. Wilson said that when the next R1 schools are announced in 2028, he’s confident that at least two more HBCUs will be on the list.
In the long run, Wilson said he’s hopeful that organizations like AHRI can help define top-tier HBCUs as major research hubs, attracting the funding and students to reflect that.
“Our goal is that perhaps in five years, there will be several HBCUs that will have annual research expenditures of $100 million,” he said. “Right now, I don’t think there is one that is there yet in terms of research expenditures, but I would expect at least four to five of them to have research expenditures of about $100 million. Also, we would expect more PhD production coming out of the institutions to provide the talent to further dig into research opportunities.”
Beyond dollar figures, though, Wilson notes that the initiative is designed to ensure that Black communities have a role in research on technology trends that affect them.
“[HBCUs] are looking at health disparities and chronic diseases,” he said. “We are looking at AI and quantum computing and the impact that it will have on marginalized communities and why that matters. We don’t want to create a society where you have a substantial percentage of that society that is left out of the innovation equation.”
