UVM touts R1 status, $225M in research and plans for a semiconductor tech hub

University of Vermont President Marley Trump told the Senate Education Committee on Feb. 5 that UVM has recently been designated an R1 research university and that research activity brought roughly $225,000,000 into Vermont last fiscal year.

"We have been recently designated an R1 university," Trump said, adding that the Carnegie classification will help recruit top faculty and students. She highlighted research based on Lake Champlain using the university's purpose‑built electric research vessel and described an unpublished finding under peer review revealing transmissible cancers among fish, which she said could inform broader biological understanding.

Trump also described federal and industry partnerships aimed at building a Vermont tech hub focused on gallium‑nitride semiconductors. She said the university was awarded about $20,000,000 by the federal government for a related hub effort, that award was initially paused during a federal freeze but the grant process has since reinitiated review, and that the hub could draw additional tens of millions of dollars to the state.

The president highlighted a partnership with BioLabs to open a rural BioLabs facility in Burlington intended to help translate university discoveries into practical applications for health care and industry.

Trump said these research and innovation efforts are intended both to advance science and to create workforce and economic opportunities in Vermont. "This path‑breaking work in gallium nitride semiconductors will make those semiconductors lighter and smaller...and we're gonna be able to produce the students who are gonna work in that industry," she said.

The committee did not act on any research funding in this briefing; Trump and staff said they will continue to engage on federal grants and private partnerships.