composed of the following: President (as Chairman); VPs; Academic Deans; Directors of Research, CESP, IKAT Center, and the Center for Natural Sciences. Its functions are: 

1. Initiate and deliberate on policies, frameworks, approaches, systems and procedures governing research and community development-oriented extension services; 
2. Provide the strategic directions for the research and community development-oriented extension activities of the University and set the priorities in accordance with the overall collaborative research and community development framework of the University; 
3. Animate faculty, personnel, and students to be involved in collaborative research and extension activities of the University; and, 
4. Receive and evaluate semestral/annual reports from the heads of the different offices who are members of the RCDC. 

A Research Development Program focusing on the development of research consciousness among faculty and students and research agenda was formulated and is being implemented by the Research Center. It has produced and is continuously producing institutional studies to address some pressing problems and concerns of the University. New research incentives and recognition schemes are put into effect and policies on the publication of articles/research works are also formulated. As a result, several institutional policy studies and commissioned researches have been conducted by the faculty and the different schools and by the University Research Center. 

In a bid to strengthen the functionality of research outputs, the Research Center started in SY 2011-2012 the dissemination of titles and outputs to concerned schools and offices so that these can be utilized. It also accepted commissioned researches from various funding agencies like the Commission on Population, Region 02, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the CHED through its Grants in Aid Project. To further its commitment towards other units of the University, the Research Center conducts in-service trainings and research fora in collaboration with the Graduate School, Teachers’ Center, Research Coordinators and the various schools to develop research awareness as well as research competencies among faculty and students. Lecture-workshops/writeshops focus on qualitative research, formulation of research agenda, problem conceptualization, R and D planning and priority, research design, instrumentation, data analysis and interpretation, and writing the research proposal and final manuscript report, journal publication, Online Journal System, and the launching of Marian e-journals. 

Across the years the Research Center has established partnerships with various entities like the National Indigenous Peoples’ Coalition in Higher Education (NiCHE), the Kalahan Educational Foundation based at Imugan, Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya (through the School of Arts and Sciences in 2008), the Nakem Conferences International, Instituto Cervantes, Manila (Government of Spain), Northern Luzon Culture and Arts Research and Development Consortium (NLCARDC), Cagayan Valley Health Research and Development Consortium (CVHRD), Cagayan Valley Industry and Energy Research and Development Consortium (CVIERD, DOST), Asian Institute of Management Mirant Center-Jollibee Foundation, Provincial Statistical Coordination Committee, Nueva Vizcaya. The University, through the Research Center, has also been designated as Program Cluster Implementer (SMU-PCI) of the CHED-Isabela State University Zonal Research Center (CHED-ISU-ZRC) for Teacher Education, Engineering, and Information Technology of Region 02. 

With the retirement of its Director, Dr. Bonifacio V. Ramos in May 31, 2011, Dr. Fe Yolanda Gatan-del Rosario was appointed Director effective June 1, 2011. Under the banner of the fourth University President, Rev. Renillo H. Sta. Ana, CICM, the Center has encouraged its faculty to conduct significant researches not only for the generation of new knowledge but also for its practical utilization. By the implementation of policies earlier drawn to sustain production, it has annually involved several faculty members who are either remunerated financially or by merit through research points. Several faculty members continue to present their research papers in local, national, and international conferences and have brought honor to the University with awards won. A number have consistently published in international refereed journals, and still a big number continue to manifest this spirit of innovation. 

By 2012 a new Research Agenda has been formulated together with the Schools’ respective coordinators, from which was drawn the domains and themes of research production both by the students and the faculty. It was also in this year that it sought to bring about quality control by ascertaining that data sets are analyzed and interpreted properly, with its acquisition of 45 licensed SPSS software. Plagiarism check and language editing have also been in place by the same year and aggressively implemented by the next. To ascertain that undergraduate thesis writers and researchers comply with safeguards to quality control, an Undergraduate Research Writing Guideline and Undergraduate Research Writing Format Manual were developed through the initiative of the former Director and of the Asst. Research Director, Dr. Cesar T. Medula. A new edition of the Research Center Manual was also printed in the same year.

Moreover, to provide venue for student and faculty research outputs to be disseminated, several other journals were launched in 2013. The year 2013 also saw an increase in the number of qualitative researches produced across disciplines. 

Also, in 2012, The University Research Center envisioned the aggressive implementation of the research productivity incentives to motivate faculty members to become more active in research production. Four mechanisms approved by the University President and made effective in 2006 became the basis of said implementation. However, the incumbent President then gave instructions that the implementation would be “ad experimentum”. Nonetheless, the succeeding years saw its continued implementation, though the more popular mechanisms were those of C and D. 

The following years also saw the active involvement of faculty or students in local, national and international presentations. This was primarily because of the support given by the Administration particularly to faculty members. As a result, a number of presentations were done at Las Vegas Nevada, in South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and Malaysia.

Moreover, to provide a venue for faculty and graduate students to present the results of their research work, a number of conferences were organized by the Center in collaboration with the Indigenous and Traditions Center, Community Extension and Services Office, School of Graduate Studies and in recent years with the External Affairs Office and Office of the Vice President for Mission and Identity. As such on August 7-8, 2013, the URC and the aforementioned organized a Regional Paper Conference enthemed, Oneness of Nature and Culture for Nourishing Ecosystem Conservation which was held at the Sacred Heart Center. In January 24-26, 2014, it hosted the First Interregional Conference (Luzon Cluster) also at the Sacred Heart Center. In January 23-24, 2015, it held the first National Paper Conference with the theme, Research in Society: Capturing Multisectoral Challenges also at the Sacred Heart Center. By 2016, the convergence of units went international with the holding of the First International Conference on Cultural Studies on May 19, 2016 at the Sacred Heart and at Banaue Hotel on May 20, 2016. Two years after, it hosted the Second International Conference on Cultural Studies on May 2- 4, 2018 at the Sacred Heart Center and at the Teng-ab Pastoral Center in Bontoc, Mountain Province respectively. As an offshoot of the first conference, the University Research Center after the approval of the RCDC came out with the first international reviewed journal called the International Forum for Cultural Studies which it launched during the Second International Conference in 2018. 

Although publications in refereed journals started with modest beginnings, the constant prodding by the Research Director of faculty members has resulted in attempts to respond to this need. While some faculty members and students had their manuscripts published in in-house journals, there were those who tried their luck in international refereed journals. By 2016, about seven manuscripts were published in online publication outfits, followed by nine in 2017, and 12 in 2018, involving about nine faculty, 17 faculty and one staff, and 24 faculty and two staff respectively.

By 2017, the University Research Center embarked on a Research Project called Project WEALTH (Wellness, Environment, Accountability, Advocacy, Life-long Learning for Transformative/Transformed Health) still in keeping with the Research Agenda of 2012-2018 and of the Ten Point Agenda of the National President. 

Realizing the importance of research results for internal and community development, the Director mandated faculty and student researchers to embark on researches with utilization. By 2017, faculty proposals with promising utilization were given approval by the University President. 

In keeping with changes in the educational landscape, the Undergraduate Research Writing Guideline and Undergraduate Research Writing Format Manual were revised in 2014 and in 2017 respectively. Following a directive from the President, the MOPG was also revised in 2014 and in 2018 respectively. 

To strengthen and support the tri-focal functions of the University, the URC works hand in hand with the key members of the Research and Community Development Council, such as the Indigenous Knowledge and Traditions Center Director, and the Director for Community Extension and Services Office, as well as with the Academic Deans. 

In 2019, the Indigenous Knowledge and Tradition Center (IKATC) was merged with the Community Extension Services Center, creating the Lingkod Maria Community Development and Advocacy Center (LMCDAC). In 2020,  Dr. Darwin Don M. Dacles, former Director of the IKAT and LMCDAC was appointed to head the URC directorship under the first layman president, Dr. John Octavious S. Palina. 

Year 2020 has been one of enormous turbulence and upheaval because of the impact of the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic. Nobody has been left untouched by the global pandemic and great changes have been forced upon the Marian educators, faculty researchers and community extensionists. Amid the pain and uncertainties of the pandemic, the URC has continued to endure. It saw a lot of potential value in the positive and encouraging lessons that are emerging in the new normal. Webinars by zoom and google meet became platforms where faculty and student- researchers share the results of their researches. In Year 2 of project WEALTH, 58.8% out of 85 faculty members conducted researches on a collaborative basis. Overall, an average of 67.6% (not counting the year 2019) out of 104 full-time faculty members and those in the offices with faculty rank have been into research production from 2015-2020.

Meanwhile, despite the rigors of the pandemic, proposal and oral defenses of graduate and undergraduate students have been presented via online means. In the same vein, faculty members and students attended and participated in webinars hosted by governmental agencies and private institutions. Some faculty members have been awarded best papers and best presenters in regional, national and international research convocations. 

In Year 3 of Project WEALTH, the URC has pushed for an outcomes-based research project proposal with demonstrable local, national and international significance. Research results in Years 1 and 2 have been repackaged to show utilization dimension. This has led to the crafting of a Writing Guide to direct the research teams to propose creative ideas in research that are geared towards utilization for beneficiaries of community extension services, institutional use and faculty and students’ use – that seem newly relevant given the constraints of 2020 and beyond. The proposals were then presented and defended during the celebration of the Linggo ng Likha at Lingkod 2020. The University has again allotted research honoraria for the research teams following research mechanism incentives. 

In August of 2020, the URC has embarked on yet another significant milestone when it pushed for the creation of the University Research Ethics Board.  The plan to establish the REC in the university was borne out of the following reasons: (a) demand of the times (a must for all sectors conducting researches and documentary works that directly and indirectly affect the well-being of human participants, communities, including the environment);(b) exigency of need (the proliferation of researches and documentary works with sheer disregard on the well-being of human participants, communities, including the environment); and (c) legal constraints accompanying failure of researchers, institutions and organizations to follow provisions (came at a point when data privacy was enacted, when the NCIP called for a stronger protection of IP rights and IKSPs and others like experimentations on humans, plants, animals, etc.). In November of 2020, upon confirmation by the Board of Trustees, the University President together with the other members of the Advisory Board appointed Mr. Jayson L. Maslang to head the UREB. In January 12-13, 2021, departmental and institutional members of the UREB attended the Basic Research Ethics Training (BRET) sponsored by the DOST – Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB).

Another paradigm shift also happened in November of 2020 when the URC pushed for the assignation of focal persons in the Applied Sciences for possible Patent Applications to help the DOST Project Einstein achieve its goal to produce 1K patents for Region 2. Engr. Andres Gualon, the Dean of the School of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology was assigned for Engineering and Dr. Arlene L. Tabaquero, Dean of the School of Health and Natural Sciences was assigned for Biology, Pharmacy and Medical Technology courses. The assigned focal persons are tapped to attend trainings on patent application (drafting and filing) and screen projects that result from researches conducted with potentials for possible patenting.

Since the University is now working towards patenting of original works, a paradigm shift in the kind of researches conducted has also been instituted, that is, for schools labeled as Center of Development (esp., Engineering, Information Technology) and even for Bio, Pharma and MedTech, it has been strongly recommended that students and faculty members in these disciplines conduct applied researches geared towards patenting of products with demonstrable significance.

The foregoing initiative has led to the eventual establishment of the Technology Transfer and Business Development Office (TTBDO) at the School of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, which will be-in-charge in overseeing faculty and student projects for possible patenting and commercialization of capstone projects.  It has started its operations with a Two Million Pesos (Php2,000,000) grant from the Shared Services Facilities (SSF) program of the Department of Trade and Industry, thus, the TTBDO shall work within the framework of government-academe-industry collaboration.

Another paradigm shift was the introduction of the Four-Chapter Format in February 2021, which many higher education institutions are now following. The four-chapter format follows the IMRAD publishable format to lessen the burden of writing on the part of thesis writers and to prepare the theses for their eventual international publication in refereed journals following the IMRAD format. Thus, the graduate and undergraduate writing formats are now undergoing revisions by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and the University Research Center staff and coordinators.

Today, the Research Center continues to play its role of providing effective support to academic instruction, collaborative researchers and the other functions of the University.