Montana State University’s annual research spending grows 7% to top $300 million for the first time

BOZEMAN - Brett Griesbaum grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Palmyra, Missouri, and went to college to study agriculture science with a focus on horticulture and agronomy. He said that when it was time to consider his choice of graduate school, he deliberately chose a place where he could grow as a scientist by addressing entirely different challenges than those faced by agriculture producers in his home state.

He found what he was looking for at Montana State University, where he is now pursuing his doctorate, advised by assistant professor Paul Nugent in the College of Agriculture. Griesbaum has spent three years doing fieldwork across Montana, looking at what remote sensing data from satellites and drones can tell producers about conserving water while growing high-value crops such as potatoes, apples, cherries and flowers.

His work included measuring evapotranspiration, which is the process of water moving into the atmosphere through soil water evaporation and plant moisture release, and he evaluated how plants in different fields use natural groundwater. The results of his precision agriculture research have advanced the science of using remote sensing data to determine the irrigation needed for individual fields, though Griesbaum said more research is needed before those prescriptions can be implemented widely in Montana.

"We saw a lot of potential for savings by watering using a combination of evapotranspiration data from satellites and local weather stations, as well as combining that with soil moisture sensors," said Griesbaum, who is preparing the results of his research for publication.

Griesbaum is one of 1,348 students whose work was supported during the last fiscal year by record-setting research spending at MSU, the largest research enterprise in the state of Montana. For the first time, MSU's annual research expenditures topped $300 million, mostly in the form of grants that fund research across the university, including the USDA specialty crop block grant that funded Griesbaum's work.

MSU's research expenditures during the 2025-26 fiscal year totaled $308.7 million, according to the university's annual report to the National Science Foundation. MSU is the first and only institution in the state to surpass the $300 million mark, and its research enterprise is larger than all other public and private universities in the state combined.

This year's record expenditures represent an increase of roughly 7% over the previous year's total of $288.7 million.

"MSU is a true talent engine for Montana and the nation," said MSU President Brock Tessman. "The research we do here not only directly benefits the people and communities of Montana but also gives our students hands-on learning opportunities that lead them into careers after graduation."

During the 2025-26 year, MSU faculty and researchers submitted 806 funding proposals, an increase of 10% over the previous year. In that time, 455 new awards were funded totaling $136.6 million. Of the new total expenditures, nearly $14.2 million supported research by 623 graduate students and 725 undergraduate students, many of the latter through the Undergraduate Scholars Program.

"At a time of significant uncertainty in the federal funding landscape, our faculty, students and staff continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience and perseverance," said MSU Vice President for Research and Economic Development Alison Harmon. "I am incredibly proud of their success and of the meaningful contributions they are making to science and economic development for Montana."

Competitively awarded funds from federal agencies accounted for 91.3% of MSU's research expenditures, including the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture, as well as the National Science Foundation and NASA. Other funding came from private sources and the state.

More than 450 MSU faculty were principal investigators or co-principal investigators on funded research.

Leading research units at MSU included the College of Agriculture, College of Letters and Science, the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, the Institute for National Security Research and Education, the Western Transportation Institute, Montana INBRE, and Spectrum Lab.

In the 2025-26 fiscal year, MSU acquired $53 million in new research equipment to augment state-of-the-art resources in some of the university's research and economic development centers and core research facilities, which are shared by the entire MSU campus community, external academics and industry.

Among the notable acquisitions was $5.7 million in equipment secured for QCORE, MSU's Quantum Collaborative Research and Education facility dedicated to the study of quantum computing. Some of that equipment is housed in campus facilities that support QCORE's work, such as the Montana Microfabrication Facility, where a new $1.6 million electron beam lithography system enables rapid prototyping of next-generation quantum, nanoelectronics and photonic devices.

Another was a $1.1 million X-ray photoelectron spectrometer procured for the campus's Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory to advance research activities at MSU and across Montana in quantum materials, energy storage and conversion, biomineralization and environmental science.

Griesbaum, whose interest in furthering the science of horticulture brought him to MSU, said he has found the work at MSU very rewarding and he plans to put down roots in the community.

"I hope to spend my career at MSU, continuing to work directly with Montana farmers while also helping educate and prepare the next generation of agricultural producers," he said. "That combination of research, applied work and education is really where I see my future."

Research done at MSU during the 2026 fiscal year and ongoing projects include:

• Quantum applications. Novel research in quantum applications and the development of novel quantum materials, sensors, devices and network systems at QCORE. The work is funded by a $31.5 million contractawarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York.
• Prescribed fires. Funded by the NSF, SMART FIRES brings together computer scientists, ethicists, optical and machine learning experts, smoke and fire scientists, educators, economists and others to study the effects of wildfire smoke on Montana communities. The project was conceived in 2020 by professors Rob Walker in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Joe Shaw in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Research experience for elementary teachers. Continuation of a successful summer program for elementary schoolteachers in rural Montana to gain hands-on research experience and fresh ideas for bringing science, technology, engineering and mathematics into their classrooms. The program is funded by the NSF.
• Drought-impact forecasting. Development of TroutCast, a new, interactive web tool amassing data from all over Montana to help forecast drought impacts on trout populations and support fisheries and water management in the state's blue-ribbon rivers. The tool was developed in collaboration between MSU and state and federal agencies, using models developed by Timothy Cline, assistant professor of cold-water fish ecology in the Department of Ecology.
• Protecting hydroponic farms. Development of a system that can autonomously detect and remove crop-killing microbes from hydroponic farms before they cause damage to plants. The work is being led by faculty members Stephan Warnat, Christine Foreman and Stephanie McCalla in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. Their work is funded by a nearly $600,000 grant from the USDA.
• Permafrost research. A collaborative research study of permafrost by researchers in MSU's departments of Earth Sciences and Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and the University of Alaska Fairbanks with an $850,000 NSF grant.
• Gravitational waves. Two gravitational wave research projects, funded respectively by the NSF and NASA, by assistant professor Hang Yu and doctoral student Ethan McKeever in the Department of Physics.
• Biofilms. An NSF-funded study of complex biofilms that aims to increase understanding of how those groups of microbes grow and persist across environments relevant to healthcare, industry and natural systems.
• Fluid dynamics. A project to further the experimental fluid dynamics work of assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering Sarah Morris. Potential applications of the research include bio-inspired mobility systems for underwater vehicles, robotics and advancing knowledge of fluid-flexible structure interactions.
• Optical communications. A $750,000 project funded by NASA that aims to limit the impact of atmospheric turbulence in quantum laser communications links between ground stations and space terminals. The project builds on optical communications technologies developed by John Roudas, professor of electrical and computer engineering, during two previous projects with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.