AUB is home to just under twenty established centers of excellence with activities ranging from pure and applied research projects to the education of students, the organization of conferences, workshops, and broader forms of outreach. All or most of these centers are interdisciplinary in nature since the most challenging research problems often cross disciplinary boundaries or lie at their interfaces. A few produce their own publications or contribute to the University’s educational programming. For example, FAS’s Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies offers a Master’s degree to the largest concentration of international graduate students at the University, while Agriculture undergraduates are required to spend time at FAFS’s Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC) in the Beqa’a valley. AREC and several other centers, such as the Nature Conservation Center (formerly IBSAR), the Issam Fares Institute, the Center for Research on Population and Health, and the Science and Mathematics Education Center, support a variety of well-developed outreach programs targeting different segments of society.

During 2012, the University announced the creation of two new research centers with strong outreach components: the Farouk K. Jabre Center for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy; and the Asafri Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship in the Arab World. Both centers are expected to begin operations in 2013 following the appointment of their founding directors.

AUB faculty members with common research goals have also organized themselves into informal research groupings – a strategy that strengthens their ability to attract external funding from local, regional, and international partners. Part of this funding is often used to establish virtual ‘centers.’ FEA has been particularly active in this area, and lists well over a dozen faculty groupings, some of which, like the Energy Research Group (ERG), have high profiles in the region.