Jonathan Hilpert calls himself “a process guy” at heart.
Statistical modeling. Computational methods. Psychological theory. Educational practice. Complex systems. All pique his interest.
He’s fascinated by data and thinks carefully about metrics, applying a measured approach to everything from teaching to academic leadership.
In July, Hilpert joined UNLV's Division of Research as assistant vice president for the Office of Research Engagement (ORE).
But he isn’t new to UNLV. He began his career here in 2008 as a professor of learning analytics in the College of Education, becoming a full professor in 2023.
Along the way, Hilpert served as director for the college’s Office of Learning Analytics, building a research program geared to student learning and motivation by evaluating different methodological perspectives.
Four years ago, when Hilpert was named associate dean for research in the College of Education, his mindset shifted. He said he went from “being a researcher to a research administrator,” as his goals gravitated toward growing teams and supporting other people’s research agendas.
Since 2018, UNLV has held R1 Carnegie classification as a Top Tier research university. Hilpert’s new position is directly related to advancing that core mission.
He wants the Office of Research Engagement to provide comprehensive support for research on campus while enhancing UNLV’s ability to identify emerging funding opportunities and form interdisciplinary teams.
“I fundamentally believe if we focus on good processes and workflows that the results will follow naturally from that,” Hilpert said.
Broadening Research Intelligence
ORE’s research intelligence program is built upon digital tools that help identify relevant funding opportunities and equip faculty for future success.
For example, there’s Pivot-RP, a subscription-based database of external funding opportunities with a powerful semantic search feature, and Research Campus Workspace, a hub filled with resources for navigating the pre- through post-award process.
The aim is to make it easier for faculty to know what support is available, where to go, and how to move their research ideas forward toward a competitive proposal.
“I would also like to improve our capacity for research intelligence, which will provide a data-driven approach to understanding where our research strengths are,” Hilpert said.
There’s a vast amount of information that could help ORE uncover where the most impactful research is happening on campus, as well as who might work well together to pursue larger-scale federal projects.
As AI continues its explosive growth, so do opportunities to harness its data-processing powers. Hilpert recently spoke at UNLV’s Rebel Spark AI Showcase during a session focused on defining an AI agent for different tasks and evaluating the output to make sure results are genuine.
Building Out Research Cyberinfrastructure and HPC
Coordinated infrastructure and secure research technology are other areas of growth closely aligned to Hilpert’s own background and expertise.
He’s delighted to be involved with the construction of a high-performance computing core facility at UNLV. It’s vital to keeping up with the specialized data storage demands in many fields as well as accelerating the substantial computational components required.
“We have faculty all over the university who have deep computational needs we can meet through this facility — not only in artificial intelligence, but in geosciences, physics, astronomy, and more,” said Hilpert. “I’m happy to be working on providing them access to that.”
An HPC center will also benefit students by giving them invaluable hands-on experience with the technologies and state-of-the-art computing resources before they enter the workforce.
Propelling Interdisciplinary Proposal Development
Hilpert prioritizes interdisciplinary team formation because today’s problems don’t fit neatly within a single discipline.
“If you think about the problems in our region we’re trying to solve through research — related to water security, public health, or the future of education — they involve interconnected technological, environmental, and social systems,” said Hilpert. “Understanding them requires team science. You need to have expertise from different disciplines all working together.”
When he first started as a researcher, he recalls funding opportunities that supported individual faculty members for craft-type projects. In addition to federal agencies, foundations have since levelled up, now seeking proposals that advance larger-scale discovery which demands interdisciplinary teams to solve them.
“Developing interdisciplinary teams that can be competitive for these opportunities is critical to our success as an institution,” said Hilpert. “Teams must be well-positioned to be able to solve society’s most pressing problems.”
His office already has infrastructure in place to facilitate partnerships, he notes.
Since 2012, ORE has offered seed funding for innovative research through the Faculty Opportunity Awards. The awards now allow for team proposals that are interdisciplinary in nature. Hilpert said that data shows UNLV’s initial award returns 16 times the investment through further external awards, making them an incredibly effective program.
Five years ago, ORE designated several Research Development Areas to support interdisciplinary grant-related efforts within the university. Referred to as iRDAs, they connect faculty across a wide range of colleges and departments by bringing together diverse disciplines, such as STEM with arts, education, and humanities.
From AI, cybersecurity, and computing to advanced materials and engineering, researchers have begun connecting to tackle problems. Faculty in medicine, public health, neuroscience, and psychology are also joining forces to conduct fMRI research, thanks to the opening of the UNLV MR Imaging Core.
Plus, UNLV’s new provost, Lakshmi Reddi, is partnering with the Division of Research to push interdisciplinary research initiatives and team building while looking into the faculty affairs side of things. He’s examining bylaws and making sure faculty who pursue interdisciplinary projects are supported in tenure.
“I’m excited about the provost’s leadership and all the great examples on campus where faculty members are now working together,” Hilpert said.
Previewing the 2026 UNLV Interdisciplinary Research Symposium
“One of the biggest challenges in interdisciplinary research is that the people who could benefit most from it often don’t know each other,” Hilpert said.
This is where the 2026 UNLV Interdisciplinary Research Symposium comes in. Hilpert is at the helm of planning the third annual event where faculty, researchers, and students from across disciplines converge in the same space to discover complementary expertise, share new research ideas, and ideally pave the way for high-impact collaborations.
“Sometimes you have people who are working on closely related problems, but because UNLV is a big university, there’s little visibility into who’s doing something similar or something that has synergy,” said Hilpert. “This symposium creates opportunities to change that.”
The day-long program features six capacity-building sessions devoted to laying the groundwork for collaborative research, developing competitive research proposals, and taking advantage of emerging technologies. There will also be presentations of 45 posters — a record number — showcasing research teams and what they’re working on.
Along with an announcement about the 2027 Faculty Opportunity Awards, Provost Reddi will speak about his passion for and perspective on interdisciplinary research.
Hilpert hopes there’ll be a willingness to share and engage at the symposium. He also hopes participants come away with new connections, new ideas about how to work, and a clear understanding of the resources available to them.
“I think about universities as being home to exceptionally talented people and that our emergent collective research potential depends on how those people connect with each other,” said Hilpert. “So the extent that I can facilitate this in self-organized ways is at the top of my priority list.”
Hilpert’s multifaceted expertise and insights are already being felt in the Division of Research where he’s supporting the strategic work being done under Vice President for Research David Hatchett and Associate Vice President for Research Gwen Marchand.
“I've been incredibly fortunate to work with some wonderful teams over the years,” said Hilpert, “so I'm just grateful for the opportunity to join the Division of Research team and start making a contribution.”
