Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley (0132U) #88620

About Berkeley

Executive Summary

The University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley) , the nation’s premier public research university, seeks a collaborative, experienced, and principled leader to serve as its next Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR).

The VCR joins the institution at a pivotal moment. Poised to lead new discoveries and solve complex global challenges, Berkeley aims to push the boundaries of knowledge, foster innovation, expand opportunities, and cultivate a welcoming environment for individuals of all backgrounds over the next decade. The VCR has the opportunity to engage with UC Berkeley's Strategic Planning , which includes fundamental inquiry, use-inspired research for global grand challenges, and enhancing research sustainability.

Working closely with other campus leaders and a broad range of stakeholders across campus, the VCR will advance research across the campus by promoting and supporting discovery, scholarship, innovation, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary collaboration while addressing administrative complexities, research compliance requirements, and upgrades to research facilities and services. The VCR will also collaborate with external stakeholders, nationally and internationally, relevant to Berkeley’s research mission.

About the University of California, Berkeley

Chartered in 1868, as the flagship of the University of California (UC) system, UC Berkeley is situated on a hillside overlooking the San Francisco Bay. It is consistently recognized for the quality of its faculty and students, the depth of its research, and its leadership in the national dialogue on the future of higher education. More information can be found on UC Berkeley’s Points of Pride .

UC Berkeley is part of the ten-campus University of California system . Collectively, the UC system enrolls approximately more than 300,000 students and maintains a mission of research, teaching, and public service.

Institutional Highlights

Global Ranking: Ranked the #1 public university and #7 university by U.S. News & World Report .

Academic Breadth: Comprises 14 schools and colleges, 184 academic departments and programs, and more than 300 degree programs, including more top-ranked PhD programs than any university.

Entrepreneurial Excellence: Ranked #1 by Pitchbook for undergraduate programs producing the most VC-backed startups, and #1 for the most women-led VC-backed startups.

Distinguished Faculty: The current faculty includes 10 Nobel laureates (26 historically), 1 Fields Medal winner, 4 Pulitzer Prize winners, 33 MacArthur Fellows, and 364 Guggenheim Fellows.

Research Funding: Over $1 billion in annual research expenses based on the NSF Herd model.

The city of Berkeley has a population of approximately 121,000 and is a culturally rich community located across the Bay from San Francisco and north of Oakland and San Jose. It is a prominent center for theater, music, dining, and intellectual life. The university's 1,200-acre campus sits within an urban core and is defined by natural beauty—featuring creeks, meadows, and groves of trees. It is close to some of the state and nation’s most impressive nature and outdoor recreational areas.

Research At UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley is a world-renowned R1 public research university, which champions groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research to tackle society’s toughest challenges. Berkeley’s prize-winning faculty and researchers bring in over $900 million in sponsored research funding per year on average from federal (over $315 million), state, industry, and nonprofit sources across disciplines from hard science to the arts and humanities. Berkeley is also the home of innovation and entrepreneurial research, ranked #1 in the world by Pitchbook in 2025 for the number of venture-backed companies founded by undergraduate alumni and students. Berkeley’s world-leading research institutes and centers bring together researchers from multiple disciplines and from around the world to drive new insights across a wide array of fields, including genomics, labor policy, space science, ethics, global engagement, public health, transportation, development, human health, to name but a few. The campus also hosts notable innovation hubs, connecting startup companies with Berkeley faculty and students to accelerate groundbreaking solutions in biotechnology, energy and materials, and health, and fosters engineering, materials science and transportation research at its nearby Richmond Field Station. Berkeley researchers are also actively engaged in public-impact, community-engaged research to drive lasting change.

Berkeley research collaborations extend beyond the campus to leverage synergies with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), located adjacent to the campus, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), located across the Bay. The campus has deep connections and history with Silicon Valley entrepreneurship.

Berkeley’s core research community is made up of roughly 1,600 full‐time ladder‐rank faculty, 33,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate students, 1,200 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars from around the world, and over 2,500 other research staff who participate in our vibrant research ecosystem of academic departments, laboratories, museums, field stations, and research centers. Many of the 30,000 undergraduate students also participate in