Initiatives
Strategic hiring initiatives over the past several years have enhanced the learning environment for students and enabled the recruitment of faculty members who advance UGA’s Great Commitments of Healthier People, A More Secure Future and Stronger Communities.
Faculty Hiring Initiatives
Learn more about the following faculty hiring initiatives below.
Presidential Faculty Hiring Initiative (2026 - 2027)
This initiative focuses on strategic faculty hires that strengthen the university’s research enterprise while also expanding instructional capacity to meet growing student demand. In total, the initiative will support the recruitment of up to 34 new faculty members across two funding tracks.
Presidential Hiring Initiative (2025-2026)
This initiative targeted instructional and research priorities to address student demand and enrollment growth, while continuing to strengthen the university’s research enterprise
Presidential Cluster Hiring Initiative in E-Mobility (2023)
This initiative aimed to recruit 10 faculty members to join the University of Georgia’s ongoing commitment to enhancing research, education and outreach opportunities as a leader in the rapidly developing technological field of electric mobility.
Presidential Interdisciplinary Faculty Hiring Initiative in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (2021)
This initiative targeted the recruitment of 70 faculty members whose work focuses on the fusion of data science and AI in cross-cutting areas such as infectious diseases, integrative precision agriculture, ethics, cybersecurity, resilient communities and the environment.
Presidential Cluster Hiring Initiatives: Precision Agriculture and Brain and Behavioral Health (2020)
The integrative, precision agriculture cluster hiring initiative aimed to recruit five faculty members over a two-year period, while the brain and behavioral health cluster hiring initiative aimed to recruit five faculty members over three years.
Presidential Cluster and Strategic Hiring Initiative (2019)
Guided by the Task Force on Academic Excellence, this initiative recruited 14 faculty members in areas such as integrative, precision agriculture; environmental sciences; and security, which encompasses cybersecurity, national security and food security.
Investment in Data Literacy and Intensive Writing (2018)
The Presidential Investment in Data Literacy and Intensive Writing Hiring Initiative stemmed from two recommendations of the UGA Task Force on Student Learning and Success.
Investing in the Research Enterprise (2017)
Initiated to provide additional start-up funding to attract outstanding faculty members to the University to establish their research programs and contribute to the institution’s growing research enterprise.
Investing in the Student Experience (2017)
Focused on faculty members in academic disciplines that are seeing dramatic growth in student demand at UGA, such as engineering, computer science, finance and biology. This initiative also included hiring additional academic advisors to support undergraduate students pursuing degrees in these high-demand areas.
Investing in the Sciences (2016)
Scientists recruited through this initiative are conducting research aligned with UGA’s Great Commitments—Healthier People, A More Secure Future and Stronger Communities.
Small Class Sizes Initiative (2015)
This initiative recruited 56 faculty members and enabled the creation of more than 300 new course sections, the majority with fewer than 20 seats, to promote more personalized instruction and mentorship.
Informatics Hiring Initiative (2015)
Designed to expand instruction and research in the rapidly growing field of informatics. Faculty hired through this initiative are using big data to address challenges ranging from the spread of infectious diseases to securing our nation’s energy grids.
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars (2015 - Present)
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars are highly accomplished scientists who conduct research that addresses the grand challenges facing the world while also fostering science- and technology-based economic development.
Extraordinary Research Faculty Hiring Initiative (2014)
Faculty hired through this initiative are seeking new treatments for infectious diseases, developing tools to diagnose and combat cancer, and developing methods to improve the yield and quality of fruit and vegetable crops.
Interdisciplinary Hiring Faculty Hiring Initiative (2013)
Targeted faculty members who conduct research across traditional academic disciplines, where many of the world’s most complex problems now reside. Faculty hired through this initiative are working in areas such as mobile health computing technology, poultry health and production, and biological imaging and brain mapping.