Research & Innovation
Research is what we do best because we’ve created a dynamic, collaborative ecosystem to produce timely, quality work. Breaking silos is what we do. Students at all levels are encouraged to participate in cross-disciplinary research projects, working with distinguished faculty and our surrounding community. Industries around the world look to USC for leadership, inspiration and opportunities to partner around today’s most important and immediate questions.
The Trojan Fund for Research Excellence
Research is fundamental to USC’s mission. It expands human knowledge, cures diseases and saves lives, and serves our community, economy and nation.
You can support the Trojans whose discoveries and inventions help us all live better lives.

Research That Saves Lives
USC is one of the nation’s premier research institutions, where bold ideas and cross-disciplinary collaboration fuel discovery and innovation. Our researchers tackle society’s most urgent challenges, delivering solutions that save lives and improve communities around the world.
Tackling Today’s Problems
Research at USC translates into real-world solutions. These projects have generated actionable plans for some of today’s most pervasive issues.
Can Diabetes Drugs Help Fight Alzheimer’s?
USC, UCLA team up for the world’s first-in-human bladder transplant
The Paralyzed Will Walk, the Blind Will See: The Bionics Revolution Is Coming
Student Research
Students are integrated in every level of the research that happens at USC. Learn how students contribute to important advances.

Faculty Research
Our top-notch faculty make us one of the leading private research universities in the country. Find out what they’re working on.

Research Resources
Our resources empower USC’s research community to be creative, make astonishing discoveries and translate findings for the betterment of humanity. Find support, methods and tools to make these endeavors happen.


A Place for Innovation
Thinkers and doers thrive in USC’s collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. We foster an entrepreneurial culture focused on solving problems to improve the human condition — and it all starts with innovation.

Centers & Institutes
Spanning a wide array of disciplines and specialties, USC’s centers and institutes are the hotbeds of innovative inquiry and collaboration pushing the frontiers of knowledge forward. USC’s interdisciplinary research ecosystem includes numerous cross-school research projects, programs and initiatives.
Research News
USC Dornsife psychologists show that empathy can be conditioned through emotional rewards — revealing a surprising path to compassion.
Their research has discovered how the human brain organizes visual memories through precise neural timing.
USC-led research finds that an electric field device placed on the scalp, along with immunotherapy and chemotherapy, may help patients with glioblastoma live longer.