research strategic plan university

Research Strategic Plan

In 2019, the Department of Medicine invested considerable effort and resources to devising a strategic plan that will provide a roadmap for our research mission today and into the future.

This work was guided by a Research Planning Committee that convened throughout the first half of 2019, reviewing the current state of research in the Department, generating recommendations for strengthening our research efforts, and developing the following plan. Many of our faculty and research administrators participated and contributed ideas as part of this process—through interviews, a survey, and robust discussions at the 2019 Research Retreat.

The result of this combined effort is the clear, direct, ambitious, and ultimately achievable research strategic plan that follows.

We identified five strategies for achieving our vision.

We will foster the success of our current faculty by enhancing our faculty development, mentoring, and funding programs while also strengthening the pipeline of the next generation of outstanding investigators in Medicine.

Lead: Andrew Alspaugh, MD

Initiatives:

• Strengthen faculty career development programs (Xunrong Luo, Matthew Crowley)
• Build a diverse and inclusive Department of Medicine (Laura Svetkey, Julius Wilder)
• Foster a culture of outstanding mentorship in the Department (Alspaugh, Cathleen Colon-Emeric)
• Expand physician-scientist recruitment and programmatic support (Rodger Liddle, Matt Hirschey)
• Launch a Department partnership hires program (Xunrong Luo, Chris Holley)
• Expand cadre of independent PhD investigators (Scott Palmer, Amy Porter-Tacoronte)

We will enhance our partnerships with other departments, centers, institutes, schools, and programs across Duke University.

Lead:  David Simel, MD, vice chair for veterans affairs

• Duke Clinical Research Institute
• Duke Cancer Institute
• Durham VA Medical Center
• Duke Molecular Physiology Institute
• Pratt School of Engineering and MEDx
• Duke Human Vaccine Institute
• Duke Global Health Institute
• Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine

We will solidify a leadership position in data science by leveraging the clinical disease expertise of our faculty; building our data assets; and improving our data collection, storage and analytics resources.

Lead: Chetan Patel, MD, vice chair for clinical affairs

• Cultivate DOM data assets into open science platform
• Augment biostatistics & bioinformatics resources
• Create new leadership role for data science
• Implement learning health units
• Continue implementation of Science Culture and Accountability Plan

We will foster a community and culture of rich scientific investigation by making research easier while achieving the highest levels of research integrity.

Lead: Erica Malkasian

• Provide outstanding grants and administrative support to investigators
• Position Duke as a leader in site-based research
• Develop next-generation biorepository capabilities
• Catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship
• Expand international research efforts

We will invest in emerging research content and method areas that leverage our strengths and address important unmet patient-centered medical needs.

Lead: Heather Whitson, MD

Cross-cutting themes:

• Immunology, inflammation & fibrosis
• Aging, resilience & pain
• Energy, obesity & metabolic disease
• Precision medicine
• Population health & disparities research

To learn more about our research strategies and initiatives, contact

• Scott Palmer, MD, MHS, Vice Chair for Research
• Saini Pillai, MBA, Senior Program Coordinator, Research

• UT Strategic Plan
• Search Search

“We will continue to expand and connect our ambitious scholarly and creative pursuits.”

Strategic Plan - Pursuits: Research

• Change Starts Here
• Pursuits: Experiences
• Pursuits: Education

Pursuits: Research

Changing the world through transformative research

Research lies at the heart of The University of Texas at Austin’s mission as the state’s flagship university and drives UT’s global impact as a tier-one institution.

Our research is defined by innovation, boldness, and excellence. It is supported by state-of-the art infrastructure and influential scholarly and creative collections and libraries that bring learners and researchers, scholars and practitioners together to produce new ideas. It is why we have more than 50 programs ranked in the top 10 nationally, draw more National Science Foundation funding than nearly any other university, and patent more than 100 discoveries each year.

To achieve our aspiration to become the world’s highest-impact public research university, we will continue to expand and connect our ambitious scholarly and creative pursuits. We will equip and embolden our faculty and students to push the boundaries of knowledge, respond to society’s greatest challenges, and enrich lives globally.

To this end, we issue a clarion call to the entire UT community – students, staff, and faculty – to pursue bold fundamental and applied research and cutting-edge scholarship across all segments of campus, including the sciences, engineering, humanities, social sciences, the arts, and professional programs. These pursuits will require both traditional and innovative methods of inquiry that cut across disciplinary boundaries and leverage UT’s excellence at scale.

We will amplify our creative, scholarly, and research activities across diverse focus areas. We will pay particular attention to three areas where we are uniquely poised to tackle some of the most important problems facing the globe. These areas are intertwined with Texas’ vast assets and UT’s existing expertise, giving us a distinct advantage as we generate world-changing research and amplify our leadership.

• We will build on the state’s and UT’s generations-long leadership around Energy and Environment. We will forge strong cross-campus connections spanning the technical, scientific, social, health, legal, political, and economic expertise needed to understand and manage these complex systems. In doing so, we will enhance and expand energy strategies and policies and ensure a more sustainable future for the nation and world.
• We will lead at the interface of Technology and Society , elevating our already world-class portfolio of research in computing and technology while building strong bridges to the humanities, social sciences, and health disciplines. We will become a global leader in understanding and developing technologies that meet the needs and uphold the values of a diverse and dynamic society.
• We will become known for pioneering revolutionary, comprehensive research in Health and Well-Being , leveraging the capabilities of our innovative medical school and other strengths across campus. We will conduct fundamental, applied, and clinical research that integrates physical and mental health, education, socioeconomics, technology, and the natural and built environment. In doing so, we will advance health outcomes, reduce disparities, and drive Austin to become a model healthy city of the future.

To achieve its highest impact, the university must become an even stronger magnet for innovative faculty, staff, and students; offer them unparalleled mentoring and training; support them in their ambitious pursuits; and elevate leaders across campus who understand the power of university research to change lives.

Initiative Areas

To expand research and scholarship that elevates UT’s impact, we will focus on multiple initiative areas:

Initiative areas to accelerate groundbreaking research, scholarship, and creative arts in all fields

5.1. Celebrate Bold Approaches

Incubate and celebrate creative and bold inquiry

For UT to become the world’s highest-impact public research university, our faculty must continually be on the leading edge of research and scholarship, incubating new areas of exploration and curiosity-driven inquiry. They must be empowered to leverage UT’s and Texas’ vast and unique assets to pursue fundamental research, applied and translational research, excellence in the creative arts, and scholarship in the humanities. These efforts will help UT identify and propel breakthroughs, exploration, and creativity in new and interdisciplinary clusters.

To encourage bold inquiry and research, we will:

• Advance the frontiers of knowledge by supporting and rewarding distinct, curiosity-driven inquiry across all disciplines.
• Facilitate innovative partnerships and communities of interest across disciplines, colleges, schools, and units.
• Build structures to identify and pursue burgeoning research areas, drawing inspiration from the assets and expertise on campus, around Texas, and beyond.
• Facilitate faculty collaboration in high-impact research and creative arts areas through cluster hires, incubators, and central university support for collaborative proposal development.
• Proactively recognize achievements of all types to increase their impact.
• Amplify the reach and impact of UT research by partnering with scholars and scientists at leading institutions in the U.S. and worldwide.

5.2. Leverage Our Breadth, Scale, and Quality

Leverage the breadth of faculty and researcher excellence to accelerate high-impact research and scholarship across disciplines

Solving intractable problems and advancing knowledge for a better future requires the best minds and most innovative scholars to come together across disciplines. UT’s scale, breadth, and outstanding faculty and staff create unparalleled opportunity for the university to lead in interdisciplinary research and scholarship and serve as a model for other institutions around the state, nation, and world.

To address societal grand challenges and advance knowledge and creativity through interdisciplinary research and scholarship, we will:

• Identify and nurture existing and new cross-campus connections to fuel impactful research and develop visionary campus leaders who are committed to interdisciplinary mentorship and collaboration.
• Create an on-campus incubator for group collaborations that catalyzes impactful collaborations across the Forty Acres and beyond.
• Value and reward research that addresses society’s biggest problems through collaborative, cross-discipline approaches, and hire more exceptional scholars for these pursuits.
• Break down structural barriers to collaboration, including by removing disincentives and creating positive incentives for faculty members to embark on broad-reaching collaborations.
• Leverage our interdisciplinary strengths in research to integrate interdisciplinary concepts, skill, and experience into undergraduate and graduate education.

5.3. Build the Best Infrastructure

Build the best research infrastructure, assets, and collections in the world

To pursue the highest-impact research, UT scholars must have access to the best infrastructure, technology, resources, and collections available. We are already world-renowned for our assets and collections, including the Texas Advanced Computing Center, Harry Ransom Center, Benson Latin American Collection, McDonald Observatory, and Briscoe Center. We have the opportunity to enhance these assets and build new ones that continue to attract top research and global partners.

To expand and improve upon our research infrastructure, assets, and collections, we will:

• Leverage our scale, breadth, and size to develop the infrastructure that can drive impactful research outcomes across disciplines.
• Create a culture where shared facilities, collective strengths in digital assets and data, trained personnel, and user engagement lower barriers to entry and spur more groundbreaking research.
• Make ambitious, deliberate, and intentional investments in emerging technology, equipment, and facilities in core areas of focus.
• Broaden the scale of our global reach by making our facilities, collections, and resources accessible to researchers from UT, the state, nation, and world.

Initiative areas to tackle key global challenges and opportunities

5.4. Energy and Environment

Lead the nation in Energy and Environment research

Our people, place, and experiences in the heart of Texas position UT as the single best university to lead the nation in expanding strategies and policies for producing, storing, and using energy; advancing sustainability; and pioneering impactful Energy and Environment research.

To strengthen our global leadership position in Energy and Environment research, we will:

• Identify and propel specific areas of fundamental and applied research for which UT is uniquely poised to drive impact.
• Build strong connections across our incredible assets, including the nearly 30 energy-related centers across campus, to create an integrated research vision that will propel UT to global leadership in this domain.
• Leverage UT’s network of field stations and other sites around the world to capture data, forecast trends, and expand biodiversity, environmental, and social science research.
• Strengthen, deepen, and expand the external and industry partnerships that are unique to UT and Texas to advance global impact on issues of energy and the environment.

5.5. Technology and Society

Propel the leading edge of Technology and Society research

Our global leadership in technology research and our location in one of the world’s most dynamic tech hubs position us to drive fundamental advances in technology and pursue a deeper understanding of their impact on society. We will conduct research across campus that takes technology in even more innovative directions. In parallel, we will promote scholarship collaborations with the humanities and social sciences to examine the implications of technology innovations on our communities, including in areas such as personal privacy and equity, and create solutions to amplify technology’s positive impacts. In short, we will progress a research agenda that has global impact in computing, robotics, and other technological advances while also understanding the human dimensions, applications, and impacts of these advances.

To advance our impact in Technology and Society research, we will:

• Grow interdisciplinary connections through groups and efforts such as the Oden Institute, Texas Advanced Computing Center, and Good Systems to create an integrated research vision that propels our incredible assets so that UT is globally recognized as a leading university in technology and society.
• Advance our fundamental understanding of the interface between technology, society, and humanity — its history, impacts, and potential for the future.
• Collectively propel beneficial uses of technology in areas as diverse as health care and urban design to improve how we live and interact with the world.
• Leverage technology to advance research in the social sciences and beyond.
• Advance ideas and innovations into the world to transform Austin into a tech-enabled “city of the future.”

5.6. Health and Well-Being

Drive research in health and well-being that transforms quality of care and life

As a tier-one research university with a medical school; schools of nursing, pharmacy, and social work; and a talented group of basic researchers in sciences, social sciences, and engineering who are innovating well-being-focused research, education, community engagement, and clinical care, we have a duty to meaningfully improve health and well-being and increase health access, outcomes, and innovation locally and globally. Our location in a growing and dynamic city and our breadth of experts will help unleash UT to pioneer research that drives knowledge and improves lives.

To create breakthrough research and impact in Health and Well-Being, we will:

• Identify and propel specific areas of fundamental and applied research for which UT is uniquely poised to transform health care outcomes and models.
• Grow interdisciplinary connections spanning Dell Medical School and a broad range of departments and institutes, including existing and new initiatives in Energy and Environment and Technology and Society.
• Continue investment in Dell Medical School to become a research center of excellence and leverage the development of health care delivery capabilities within Dell Medical School to enable research advancements.
• Develop research approaches that promote a comprehensive view of well-being and health — physical, mental, emotional, social — across a range of environmental, economic, historical, social, and geopolitical contexts.
• Drive and connect fundamental, applied, and clinical research to produce ground-breaking clinical outcomes, transform the health care industry, and reduce disparities in health care access and outcomes.
• Support the development of university-aligned health care delivery infrastructure to accelerate the pace of discovery and impact from bench to bedside.
• Work in partnership with outstanding health care organizations and agencies across Austin, Texas, and the nation to drive innovation and build equitable “healthy communities” of the future, beginning in Austin and along the Texas-Mexico border.

Initiative areas to advance UT’s impact beyond the Forty Acres

5.7. Creative Arts and Humanities

Scale UT’s creative arts and humanities scholarship impact

An impactful flagship university is committed to advancing knowledge across all disciplines, particularly the humanities and arts. Such scholarship in UT’s College of Fine Arts, College of Liberal Arts, Moody College of Communication, collections, and across campus is fundamental to enriching and elevating lives and advancing curiosity-driven inquiry.

To further our impact in creative arts and humanities scholarship, we will:

• Encourage and enable humanists, thinkers, artists, and creators to produce transformative scholarship and works that reimagine the world of the past, present, and future, while promoting the contributions of faculty, staff, and students across disciplines.
• Continue to support and promote existing assets such as the Blanton Museum, Harry Ransom Center, and Briscoe Center for American History to share our collections, works, and programs with society.
• Commission and support more physical and digital collections, artwork, and performances both on the Forty Acres and the global stage.
• Harness the energy of Austin, including the South by Southwest Festival and “Austin City Limits,” to elevate UT as a creative hub and propel outstanding artists and works onto the global stage.

5.8. Global Impact

Reach the world so we can change the world

UT faculty, staff, and students pursue research to elevate lives, advance knowledge, drive entrepreneurship, and propel progress. No matter how innovative and impactful their work may be, they must be unleashed from the Forty Acres to change the world.

To propel knowledge out from UT, we will:

• Expand our capacity to communicate research with the public, media, and policymakers worldwide.
• Increase opportunities for faculty and staff to work with the private sector, government, and community organizations, as well as to connect with global scholars.
• Educate doctoral graduates and faculty members about opportunities to commercialize research, streamline internal processes to commercialize discoveries, and support scholars in translating their ideas to the marketplace.
• Support and incentivize faculty, staff, and students to serve as experts, disseminate their findings, and objectively educate the public while bolstering UT as a “go to” source of expertise and world-changing ideas and inventions.

How we will measure our success

To maximize the impact of our research and scholarship, we will focus on a series of specific goals:

Greater impact, leadership, research, scholarship, and creative arts activity

• Increase research, scholarship, and creative arts funding from government and private sources
• Increase the number of influential papers, books, scholarly contributions, software, copyrights, and patents across disciplines
• Increase UT’s research presence in national discourse
• Increase frequency of UT researchers’ expertise sought by government, foundations, news media, community, industry, and other external entities
• Increase the number of UT researchers engaging with external (academic and non-academic) entities to expand the impact of their research
• Increase the number of prestigious research, scholarship, and creative arts-oriented awards and accolades for individual faculty members
• Bring more UT innovations to market through technology and research commercialization
• Recognize and celebrate impact examples of all types from each college and school

Tangible impact in three areas of research focus (Energy and Environment, Technology and Society, Health and Well-Being)

• Increase research and scholarship activity and funding in each area
• Recognize and celebrate awards, accolades, and impact examples in each area

Increased interdisciplinary collaboration across all disciplines, but especially in our three areas of focus

• Increase faculty networks across disciplines within the three areas of focus and across the university
• Increase research, scholarship, and creative arts activity with faculty from more than one college or school
• Recognize and celebrate collaboration impact examples
• Create an on-campus incubator for group sabbaticals and other group collaborations

Raised bar on research infrastructure and support

• Earn high faculty satisfaction with research support
• Increase leading infrastructure developed by UT experts
• Increase faculty members’ perceptions of being valued and recognized by UT for their scholarly contributions

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Florida State University

FSU | ASPIRE - A Strategic Plan to Inspire Research Excellence

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Over the past year, Florida State University’s Office of Research led a process to craft a research strategic plan for the university known as ASPIRE – A Strategic Plan to Inspire Research Excellence.

With the help of an accomplished faculty committee, input from the Council of Associate Deans for Research, analyses of funding and publication trends, and a campuswide survey, we have crafted a robust and ambitious plan for FSU that identifies strategic areas of focus and investment.

The vision and initiatives for executing these strategies are detailed throughout the ASPIRE plan. FSU has very dedicated faculty, staff, and students who share a deep passion for this great institution and are committed to helping it rise to new heights.

The ASPIRE plan is now available. Please click below to view the plan.

If you have any questions or feedback on ASPIRE, please email:

Email [email protected]

Our Connected World

About the interactive digital art: – This conceptual art uses a subset of data from more than 80,000 degrees earned by Waterloo students between 2008 and 2018. Click or tap and hold to generate different art. – Your browser does not support the interactive features of this artwork. Please use either Chrome or Firefox web browsers and ensure you have JavaScript enabled.

Research expands knowledge. Research explores new knowledge. Research solves problems, creates understanding, and provides rich connections between the academic world, the private sector, communities, and governments. Research is in the DNA of the University of Waterloo, both within and across its many Departments, Faculties, Centres, and Institutes.

Waterloo research spans the continuum from fundamental, curiosity-based inquiry to the practical applications of new knowledge. It is conducted in both a discipline-specific manner and by inter-and multidisciplinary teams. A strong spirit of entrepreneurship underpins this research, giving rise not only to the development of new technologies, but their application and commercialization.

Waterloo’s research strengths are deliberately aligned with important global challenges. This is in recognition of the critical role that technology coupled with reflective scholarship will play in meeting these challenges and understanding their human dimensions. Discoveries heralding transformative disruption that benefits society are a hallmark of Waterloo research.

Fundamental thematic areas

Developing technologies for the future.

Innovative technologies are transforming the way we work, live and play. Researchers at Waterloo are not only creating these new technologies, they are probing the nature of human interaction with technology, uncovering the benefits it heralds as well as exposing and mitigating the risks it poses.

• Advancements in big and small manufacturing
• Autonomous systems for independence
• Cybersecurity, cryptography and privacy
• Intelligent systems and attendant paradigm shifts
• Light and sound for improved vision and imaging
• Technologies for connectedness
• The quantum-nano revolution

Pushing the frontiers of knowledge

The very big and the very small shape humanity. Waterloo researchers are seeking to understand how. They are exploring the cosmos, probing the genetic code and the limits of complexity, discovering what shapes the interactions of humans with each other and the planet. They are searching for answers, for theoretical proof, for knowledge.

• Abstraction, inference and proof
• Classical and quantum information
• Foundational principles and their application
• Genetics and the origins of life
• Knowledge discovery and representation
• Limits of complexity and emergent phenomena
• Origin and composition of the universe
• The building blocks of matter

Understanding and enhancing human experience

Waterloo researchers are exploring opportunities for social, artistic and cultural innovation in a rapidly changing world and the challenges this poses. They are looking for connection and commonality. They are exploring and promoting scholarship in the area of Indigenous culture. They are analyzing how technology and innovation can help knit humanity, with all its diversity, closer together.

• Communication, technology and culture
• Creative and scholarly innovation
• Design of and experience with interactive media
• Ethics, governance and politics
• Human-centered technology
• Identity: inclusivity, diversity, and equity
• Risks, crises and conflicts of our time
• Social impact of science and technology

Accelerating sustainability

Through deliberate alignment of research strengths with global challenges, Waterloo is accelerating the development of technology and novel practices for enhancement of environmental sustainability. This research is guiding the formulation of principles, policies and paradigm shifts in global environmental governance for achieving local and regional sustainability outcomes.

• Integrated ecosystems approach to managing the natural environment
• Clean and affordable energy
• Clean technology and responsible production
• Climate-resilient and low-carbon society
• Sustainable cities, buildings and infrastructure
• Sustainable water management

Advancing health and wellbeing

Waterloo is poised to make major advances at the interface between technology and health. For example, new technologies being developed by Waterloo researchers have the potential to revolutionize the collection and interpretation of health data. This is complemented by innovative research on the social determinants of health, including healthy aging, lifestyles, and substance-use, that is giving rise to new paradigms for population health.

• Biomedical/social determinants of health
• Health care delivery
• Health informatics and health technologies
• Neuroscience
• Mental health
• Population health and health systems for communities
• Vision science
• Pharmaceutical science

Advancing research for global impact

To maximize global impact, Waterloo has aligned its thematic research strengths with opportunities for new discoveries that are likely to shape approaches to global challenges. In doing so, the institution continues to build on established strengths in fundamental research, engage in applied research, and take a leadership role in commercializing new technology. That solutions to global challenges will be both technology-based and informed by an increased understanding of their human dimensions has prompted mobilization of complementary research strengths in several fields in the quest to develop and implement these solutions.

Quantum science, nanotechnology, connectivity and telecommunications

Pioneering basic and applied research in: quantum and materials science, quantum computing and quantum simulation for understanding physics and materials, nanotechnology, digital media, and telecommunications, is pushing the frontiers of knowledge and giving rise to new technologies. Waterloo researchers are also examining human interaction with these technologies and their potential for transformative impact on industrial, social, artistic, environmental and cultural landscapes. Developments that are having a transformative impact include:

• new quantum sensors with enhanced sensitivity
• smart functional materials
• advances in quantum security
• new developments in photonics
• nano sensors and electronics for lab-on-a-chip
• advances in network and satellite communication enabling increased connectivity and future expansion of the Internet of Things
• emerging technologies for social innovation
• social and ethical impacts of connectivity

Water, energy and climate: sustainability, security, infrastructure

Waterloo research is facilitating the transition to a climate-resilient, low-carbon sustainable society. A cornerstone objective is sustainable use and management of space, land, water, and energy on a global scale. Developments that are having a transformative impact include:

• nanotechnologies for the delivery of clean water
• environmental and resource economics and governance and the formulation of sustainable land and water-management policies
• next generation batteries, fuel cells and smart-grid infrastructure for the provision of clean, affordable, low-carbon energy
• digital and remote sensing technologies for environmental monitoring of air, land, water and the stratosphere, providing information that will shape pivotal environmental policies
• new paradigms of architectural and urban design for enhanced sustainability of cities, buildings and infrastructure

Information technology and its impact, including intelligent systems, human-machine interfaces, cybersecurity, privacy and data science

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling Waterloo researchers to develop systems that are ushering in a new era of automated, intelligent transportation. The attendant challenges will test the mettle of human/machine interfaces. Social scientists are studying the impact of these intelligent systems on the transportation industry and on domestic and international job markets. Developments that are having a transformative impact include:

• autonomous scale cars with novel sensors enabling robust navigation without human inputs
• smart systems for hybrid and electric vehicles
• network and operational security for internet-connected systems and data
• quantum-safe cryptography
• blockchain technology for secure data storage, financial transactions and asset management
• societal implications of cyber risk, including cyber terrorism and global security
• ethical considerations of the applications of artificial intelligence

Robotics and advanced manufacturing

Through innovative research encompassing the use of advanced materials, advanced robotics and mechatronics, Waterloo is developing next-generation additive manufacturing. Robotics research at Waterloo is both fundamental and applied in nature and runs the gamut from designing robots for the service industry to those able to defuse land mines or perform surgery. New developments that are having a transformative impact include:

• human-robot interaction including its impact on cognitive function and development
• robot-assisted full cycle manufacturing in a factory setting
• custom-product development using next-generation additive manufacturing
• autonomous robots for detecting structural defects in bridges
• human-centered robotics and machine learning

Health technologies

New technologies with the potential to reshape aspects of medicine are being developed at Waterloo. Research on the social determinants of health including healthy aging, tobacco control and substance use is having population-scale impacts. Development and deployment of digital health systems for improving population health are enhancing health - care outcomes. Enhanced understanding of human response to technical and policy interventions is helping to stem viral spreads and mitigate their impact on the most vulnerable. New developments that are having a transformative impact include:

• wearable devices for monitoring indices of health
• next generation contact lenses with drug-delivery potential
• soft-robotics for ocular treatment and surgery
• nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery
• high resolution imaging technology

Research enhancement goals

The Office of Research has identified the following as key research priorities, as articulated in the University’s Strategic Plan. These priorities emerged through the many consultations that were held for the development of the University’s Strategic Plan. There were also additional, extensive consultations held simultaneously within the Office of Research. These additional consultations, involving researchers and leaders from across the Waterloo community including, Deans, Associate Deans Research, Executive Directors of Centres and Institutes, Department Chairs, Research Chairs, students, the Innovation Ecosystem Council, the Research Equity Diversity and Inclusion Council, research staff across campus, external stakeholders, and others, enabled a detailed focus on identification of drivers of research excellence at the institution.  

The following tangible goals with their specific objectives will serve to enhance disciplinary and interdisciplinary research strengths and marshal these strengths to solve increasingly complex real-world problems. These goals will serve to support the University’s Strategic Plan, as well as the Research Strategic Plan. 

The Office of Research is committed to supporting activities related to these goals and objectives as they are pursued within the Faculties and other organizational units across the institution, including in the Office of Research itself.   

Enhance research excellence

Accelerate the research enterprise

• Attract and retain high-quality faculty
• Foster interdisciplinary collaboration through meaningful interactions and exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries
• Seize opportunities to lead in new and emerging research areas
• Develop sustainable support for the acquisition, maintenance and operation of state-of-the-art major equipment and shared facilities
• Explore opportunities to create cross-Faculty interdisciplinary research teams
• Incentivize strategic joint cross-Faculty appointments
• Address barriers to pursuing interdisciplinary research including funding constraints, narrow definitions of merit, and lack of space for co-locating researchers from different Faculties in cross-disciplinary communities

Adapt academic programming

• Increase opportunities for diversified research experiences and participation in interdisciplinary research teams for graduate and undergraduate students
• Develop more flexible graduate programs including interdisciplinary and team Masters degrees

Fully implement equity, diversity and inclusivity across the research enterprise

Support the culture

• Promote and support a culture of equity, diversity and inclusivity to ensure a dynamic research environment with different perspectives, fresh ideas and new approaches
• Ensure the research environment is equitable, welcoming and one in which everyone can flourish
• Promote and support Indigenous approaches to research including Indigenous ways of knowing
• Work with the Equity Office, Faculties and Departments to ensure broad awareness and implementation of the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion
• Foster a research and innovation ecosystem that attracts and retains outstanding, diverse faculty members who will enable Waterloo to thrive in a global setting

Educate for change

• Revise and expand unconscious bias, equity, diversity and inclusion training
• Increase accountability for improving representation of the Four Designated Groups (FDGs)
• Review policies and procedures regularly to ensure they continue to reflect equity, diversity and inclusion principles

Reinforce Waterloo's distinctive brand of preeminence in innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge mobilization

Maximize impact

• Enhance the collective impact of Waterloo innovation and commercialization hubs: Velocity, the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, the Accelerator Center and WatCo
• Support the creation of new companies and the commercialization of transformative research
• Celebrate the innovation and entrepreneurship successes of faculty, alumni and students
• Provide opportunities for co-op students to present work-term projects and experiences related to innovation and commercialization
• Establish a fund to assist students and faculty with a strong entrepreneurial inclination to commercialize their IP
• Review strategies and procedures for enhancing innovation and commercialization of research on a regular basis and be nimble in adjusting as needed
• Adjust policies and procedures to ensure that performance criteria for tenure, promotion and salary adjustments for faculty include commercialization activity where appropriate

Support industry

• Engage with strategic business sectors of competitive importance to Canada where interdisciplinary research teams can help resolve problems of common interest
• Increase private-sector partnerships and develop new technologies that will enhance the competitiveness and innovation of Canadian business
• Spearhead policy development for new technologies at municipal, provincial and federal levels of government
• Share industry partnership prospects to build enhanced value for the partner, create incentives and opportunities for teamwork across the institution, and support Waterloo’s innovation goals
• Establish interdisciplinary capstone projects to enable students to gain interdisciplinary research experience

Enhance the global impact and reputation of Waterloo research

Increase capacity to lead globally

• Increase research capacity, particularly Research Chairs, broadly across the Institution to seize leadership in new and emerging research areas
• Increase and diversify research funding
• Encourage the pursuit of “Big Research Problems” of major societal importance requiring an interdisciplinary approach
• Engage in research that threads technology and its impact into projects rooted in the social sciences and humanities

Share results

• Encourage and support knowledge translation to inform business decisions, policy development by all levels of government, and members of society at large
• Promote awareness of Waterloo research achievements by encouraging publication in highly ranked dissemination venues and nominating faculty for national and international awards and honours
• Seize the opportunity for international leadership in the development and implementation of technologies at the interface between the physical sciences/engineering and medicine

Strengthen national and global research partnerships

Enhance connections

• Enhance Waterloo’s dynamic innovation ecosystem by connecting with global institutions and global-change initiatives
• Enhance digital connectivity in support of collaborative national and international research
• Provide incentives to enhance the global mobility of researchers (faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students)

Deepen relationships

• Strengthen formal collaborations with research arms of government
• Increase the number and scope of national and international industry/business research collaborations through Faculty-based initiatives and through the Gateway for Enterprises to Discover Innovation
• Establish and invest significantly in a limited number of international research partnerships in areas where Waterloo has recognized strengths

About the Artwork

The conceptual art on our Strategic Plan website reflects Waterloo’s culture — one that welcomes change, chance and the great promise of human-machine interaction. Using data from our community, Matt DesLauriers , a Canadian artist and creative coder, developed four works of digital art to highlight Waterloo’s new vision and themes for action. Each time you interact with this digital art, you generate a unique image that represents the countless ways we interact with computers for a better world.

Waterloo is a comprehensive, research–intensive university with a worldwide reputation. This artwork is a visualization of research publications listed in an InCites data set. When you click or tap and hold, new art will be generated from a random subset of most–cited publications. Each rectangular cell is mapped to a single publication. The colour coincides to the Waterloo faculty and the height is related to the citation’s impact.

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The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations .

By any measure, UCLA is a remarkable engine of positive change in California and across the globe. Our university provides an excellent education to a widely diverse student body. We produce transformative research for the public good. And we contribute greatly to the welfare of our region, state and the world.

Bruins are driven by the immense impact we have on the communities we serve. The question at the heart of UCLA’s 2023-28 strategic plan is how we deepen our impact at a moment of transformation within our broader society, within Los Angeles and within our university.

In short: how can we create the future?

UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt shares more about the plan and the cross-cutting theme of inclusive excellence:

Our strategic plan’s goals and priorities were developed through extensive consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members.

With this plan, we are endeavoring to create the future of UCLA — one in which we surmount the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities that we face as an institution. In maximizing UCLA’s contributions to the world, we will also help create a better future for our global society. With greater impact as our goal, and inclusive excellence as our means of achieving it, we will do this with equity and justice at the forefront.

Goal 1: Deepen our engagement with Los Angeles

Hear from goal group leader Shalom Staub , Director, UCLA Center for Community Engagement:

Goal 2: Expand our reach as a global university

Hear from goal group leader Cindy Fan , Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement, International Institute:

Goal 3: Enhance our research and creative activities

Hear from goal group leader Roger Wakimoto , Vice Chancellor for Research & Creative Activities:

Goal 4: Elevate how we teach

Hear from goal group co-leader Adriana Galván , Dean of Undergraduate Education:

Goal 5: Become a more effective institution

Hear from goal group leader Michael J. Beck , Vice Chancellor for Administration:

Explore our progress

View a timeline of major achievements to date as we make progress across our five goals.

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Get Involved

Want to find ways to contribute to the plan or provide feedback? Please email [email protected] .

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For close to two centuries, McGill University has attracted some of the world’s brightest researchers and young minds. Today, McGill remains dedicated to the transformative power of ideas and research excellence as judged by the highest international standards. The Strategic Research Plan (SRP) expresses McGill’s commitments to fostering creativity; promoting innovation; problem-solving through collaboration and partnership; promoting equity, diversity and inclusion; and serving society through seven identified Thematic Areas of Research Excellence.

Research Excellence Themes

The seven  Research Excellence Themes group McGill researchers into broad areas of strategic importance. Together the themes will be used as a roadmap for setting institutional-level objectives and supporting both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Our classification is designed to help generate and reinforce novel linkages that address issues of local, regional, and global importance.

The Research Excellence Themes are, by necessity, broad ways of grouping areas of strength and strategic importance and so our researchers have written a few emblematic examples of research areas that fit within the themes. These examples are by no means exhaustive - they are intended to allow the reader insight into some of McGill's varied research endeavours within the themes.  Click on the images or text below to explore the seven Research Excellence Themes. 

1.  Develop knowledge of the foundations, applications, and impacts of technology in the Digital Age

The Unique Character of McGill

McGill's researchers are known around the world for their discoveries and innovations. Learn more about McGill's vision, commitments, and objectives for sustained research excellence in the Strategic Research Plan (SRP) . McGill is a large, diverse institution with research activities spanning two campuses, 10 Faculties, multiple hospitals, research centres and institutes. It is home to more than 1,700 tenured or tenure-track faculty members. Defining Research Excellence Themes that cut across these entities is a difficult but necessary challenge to promote areas of collaboration with partners, attract people and resources, and envision a research future emerging from existing strengths. To that end, we have identified seven Research Excellence Themes. 

The SRP lays the groundwork for McGill to reach into the future by enhancing its research capabilities, building and strengthening its strategic relationships, and growing its societal impact through knowledge mobilization beyond academia. The SRP also aims to promote exciting and creative responses to new challenges and opportunities as the research landscape and the social, cultural, economic, and technological realities of our world change. 

Image: In the lab of Professor Tomislav Friščić (Normand Blouin)

Our vision, goals and culture

McGill is a world-class research-intensive, student-centred university with an enduring sense of public purpose. We are guided by our mission to carry out research and scholarly activities that are judged to be excellent by the highest international standards. Our researchers ask important questions and contribute within and across disciplines to address the most pressing and complex challenges facing humanity and the natural environment in the 21st century.

Fundamental to realizing this vision is the expansion of a culture that nurtures and facilitates research excellence, enabling faculty and student researchers to explore rich intellectual pursuits, respond to new global realities and co-create knowledge with partners that will have impacts at local, national, and global scales.

This Strategic Research Plan (SRP) expresses McGill’s core commitments to research, identifies ongoing Research Excellence Themes, and outlines our implementation strategy and objectives over the next five years.

Image: The McGill Space Institute (Olivier Blouin)

Achieving Our Goals

McGill has a strong history of achievement, consistently ranking as one of the top universities in the world across a wide range of disciplines and subject areas. We are renowned for attracting some of the brightest researchers and young thinkers, who contribute immensely to the advancement of knowledge.

This SRP reaffirms our dedication to the transformative power of ideas and research excellence. To these ends, we commit to:

• Fostering creativity
• Promoting innovation
• Problem solving through collaboration and partnership
• Promoting equity, diversity and inclusion
• Serving society

This document goes on to describe the scope and reach of McGill’s research enterprise through each of seven Research Excellence Themes. The Research Excellence Themes describe ongoing research but they are also forward looking and imbued with aspirational goals, for example, of advancing technology to improve the human condition, reducing disease burden and building sustainable societies. Under each of the Research Excellence Themes the reader will find examples, provided by our research community, that are intended to bring the Research Themes to life. The final section identifies strategic objectives designed to enhance McGill’s ability to provide distinctive contributions to research, teaching and training, and community engagement, both locally and beyond. These objectives build on the University’s ongoing and continued efforts to streamline administrative procedures, increase opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, and explore new organizational models for strategic research teams.

Overall, the SRP aims to extend the global impact of our research activities, encourage new and stronger partnerships, deliver quality research experiences for trainees, and help McGill tap into the worldwide pool of knowledge while contributing to its advancement.

Founded in 1821, McGill is a research-intensive university with a history of producing important contributions to the arts and humanities, science and technology, and health. The University both belongs to the world and is firmly rooted in Montreal – a global destination for scholarship and a city where different languages, cultures, and perspectives not only co-exist, but come together to create a unique community that is stronger because of its diverse parts.

McGill University is located on land, which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange among Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg nations. McGill honours, recognizes, and respects these nations as the traditional stewards of the lands and waters on which we stand today.

McGill benefits immensely from its place at the centre of a vibrant hub of intellectual, cultural, and scientific activity. In addition to Montreal’s many academic institutions, major government laboratories and research-intensive industry are situated in the city. These organizations anchor research clusters in life sciences, sustainable resource utilization, aeronautics, and artificial intelligence.

The intellectual and cultural vitality of Montreal contributes to McGill’s ability to attract the very best faculty members and students from Quebec, Canada, and around the world. It is telling that McGill consistently recruits undergraduates with the highest entering grades in the country and has the largest percentage of international students among Canada’s top research-intensive universities. McGill nurtures this talent by placing a special emphasis on the nexus between research and education, recognizing that top students at all levels are inspired by novel ideas and practices and are the leaders of the future. McGill has a comparatively high ratio of graduate to undergraduate students, a metric fitting of a research-intensive university that prioritizes the training of the next generation of researchers. It simply cannot be overstated that graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are fundamental to the University’s research enterprise and that their support and training are vital to the University’s research mandate.

Purpose of the SRP

The SRP informs the University’s strategic distribution of Canada Research Chairs (CRC), applications to Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC), and Canada Foundation for Innovation investments. It is also a reference for promoting our world-class researchers and students to our public and private supporters. For a summary of McGill’s current CRC allocation and projections, see Appendix 1.

The spirit of the document aligns with the President’s Priorities, the Strategic Academic Plan 2017-2022, the Final Report of the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education 2017, the University’s Vision 2020 Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 2017-2020, as well as strategic research priorities from our Faculties and affiliated hospitals. Finally, implementation strategies included here rely on institutional commitments to increase efficiency and connectivity across a broad spectrum of University endeavours.

The SRP provides McGill Faculties, departments, centres, institutes, and individual researchers with the freedom and flexibility necessary to pursue their specific goals in the context of the University’s strategic vision.

Core Commitments

The following five core commitments illustrate McGill’s dedication to the pursuit of research excellence. We believe that fundamental research extends the boundaries of knowledge so that it can inform problem-focused research and equip us to respond to new challenges as they emerge. There is no single metric that effectively measures the success of research and its impact on society. We recognize that all forms of research outputs advance knowledge and affect society, either directly or indirectly, and contribute to social, economic, environmental, or cultural benefits.

Image: The McGill Nanotools Microfac (NMN) facility (Olivier Blouin)

• Fostering Creativity 

Promoting Innovation

Problem solving through collaboration and partnership, promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion.

• Serving Society

Fostering Creativity

Universities are grounded in a long history of reflection and inquiry in all aspects of the arts and humanities, science and technology, and health. Wherever research may ultimately lead, all advances begin with creative ideas. McGill has been an active participant in this tradition for almost two centuries, and we strongly believe that universities must continue to be spaces where leading minds are free to pursue discovery and create new knowledge.

Increasing the emphasis on innovation in all its forms – social, pedagogical, and organizational as well as through the development of new products and processes – allows us to play a leading role in a knowledge-based society. We invent and we increase the impact of research by translating the results into social and commercial applications. This translation can take many forms - communicating research discoveries to decision-makers, transferring knowledge and know-how, protecting ideas and inventions, licensing discoveries, and creating new spin-off companies or non-profit organizations.

McGill is dedicated to facilitating mutually-rewarding research partnerships across academic fields, both on our campuses and with external partners. Our researchers collaborate with community organizations, citizens’ associations, as well as with government and industry partners. Partnerships and team approaches often require extra organizational effort and special institutional support. These efforts are necessary to deliver benefits of partnerships which may include enriched research endeavours and outputs as well as new opportunities for applied learning experiences for students. Bringing together leaders – regardless of discipline, background, or affiliation – can generate new ideas and approaches. At home and abroad, our faculty and students build bridges with colleagues from other leading research institutions, governments, private industry, and community-based organizations.

Research excellence and equity go hand in hand. The underrepresentation of voices among our researchers and students is an unacceptable loss of human potential that we are striving to overcome. True and full inquiry into all aspects of the arts and humanities, science and technology, and health happens when the visions, experiences, knowledge, traditions, and epistemologies of multiple peoples are embraced.

Serving Society 

McGill researchers apply their ingenuity and creativity in service to society. Drawing on the strengths and expertise of different stakeholders, they co-create and apply evidence-based research to address shared challenges; guide and develop policies, practices and products; provide innovative learning environments and professional experiences for students at all levels; improve professional practices; and seek out and support initiatives that result in tangible improvements for individuals and communities.

Strengthen the Innovation and partnership agenda

Steward research trajectories toward collaborative, large-scale initiatives and international partnerships

Promote and draw on diversity in all aspects of research

Lead in open science and Data management

Department and University Information

Research and innovation.

College of Engineering

Strategic plan research.

GOALS: 1) To lead signature areas of research and economic development to drive breakthroughs that have societal impact, and 2) To train graduate students to become outstanding technical leaders and innovative researchers.

Focus and build on strengths of the college, in collaboration with centers, institutes, and other colleges/units

1. Invest in strategic research areas of strength by targeted faculty hiring and fostering research collaborations and interaction with centers, institutes other colleges and units, and industry.

2. Maintain world-class research facilities; strategic investment in new infrastructure to enable research in current and emerging grand challenges in engineering.

3. Actively coordinate writing proposals for larger, multidisciplinary research grants in identified research areas. 

4. Increase number of research and graduate student training proposals in targeted research areas.

Maintain strong research funding and identify new sources of support for research/graduate programs

1. Maintain strong numbers and sizes of research proposals submitted by faculty and research staff as PI’s, MPI’s, and co-I’s.

2. Continue to identify, monitor, and address barriers to student success.

3. Expand access to pre- and post-award support.  

Reward/support faculty, staff and students for achieving excellence in research and contributions to mission of the college

1. Develop a fair metric widely accepted by the faculty and staff that properly values diverse contributions of faculty and staff to the College/University mission.

2. Develop a mechanism for broad appreciation of disciplinary and/or inter-disciplinary research contributions from faculty, staff, and students.

Focus on recruitment of high quality, diverse graduate student body 

1. Increase the number of graduate students, especially PhD students.

2. Improve recruitment practices of high-quality, diverse graduate student body across the college.

Focus on the educational/research experience and training/professional development of graduate students 

1. Facilitate inter-department collaboration and sharing of best practices for mentoring, enhancing URM and female student representation, professional development, social and leadership opportunities; writing support, etc.

2. Recognize and credit graduate students for their achievements.

3. Improve graduate student life in the college and university.

We can meet our research goals if we:

1. Maintain and enhance our leadership position on campus and beyond when confronting the grand challenges of the 21st Century

2. Support a collegiate culture in which all faculty, staff, and students advance the research mission through their pursuit of excellence

3. Enhance the quality, size, and diversity of the graduate student body while focusing on graduate student success

Strategic Research Plan

Simon Fraser University is well-positioned to continue to expand our research activities, to deepen our engagement with community and to grow the impact of our scholars on the world.

Officially launched in January 2023, Simon Fraser University's 2023-2028 Strategic Research Plan (SRP) captures some of the breadth of activities at the university. It also defines priority areas of research strength and focus for 2023-2028. The SRP is accompanied by an implementation plan that identifies specific actions that will be taken to enhance the impact of the university in its key research priority areas.

SFU's 2023-2028 Strategic Research Plan

In preparing the SRP, we have interacted with hundreds of community members through townhall-style meetings, survey responses and email. We have discussed their priorities and where they see their research going in the coming years. Clear themes emerged from these discussions, such as the role of SFU in confronting the climate crisis, the growth of human-health focused research at the institution, the need for the institution to value diverse forms of scholarship, the need to respect and incorporate Indigenous perspectives and knowledge(s) into research at the institution, and the need to support graduate students and other early career researchers in our community.

Research approaches supporting SFU's core values

A broad consultation for the university's new strategic plan has been undertaken, led by the SFU President and the Provost and VP Academic, called " SFU: What's Next? ". As part of the consultation, a draft set of core values was identified to help define our university. Those core values include:

Academic freedom and critical thinking 

Excellence and responsibility

Respect and reciprocity

Equity and belonging

Engagement and openness

Resilience and sustainability

Innovation and adaptability

To enact these values in the way we do research at SFU, there are several approaches we employ:

A culture of inquiry

We are here to advance knowledge and understanding on a wide range of topics from a wide range of perspectives.  Our researchers will ask hard questions about challenging topics. SFU’s support of academic freedom should create a safe environment in which these topics can be addressed. 

Indigenous approaches, and knowledge(s)

To understand and then address the complexity and urgency of many of the problems our society faces, we recognize that we need a broad and inclusive understanding of the world that incorporates many knowledge systems and world views. Our commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples includes reconciling different approaches to understanding the world. Frameworks such as two-eyed seeing and walking on two legs guide our approach.   

Interdisciplinarity 

Many of the most interesting academic questions are rooted in very complex problems that cannot be solved by a single researcher. Team-based work—often requiring team members from a variety of disciplines and trained in multiple methodologies—is the path to answering these questions. In addition to offering strong support for specialized disciplinary work, at SFU we support scholars working across disciplines by supporting partnerships both within the university and with other universities.

Linking research to teaching and learning

We mentor students to be the next generation of researchers, innovators, and educators by engaging them in research processes. This enriches their education and the research produced. We embed practices of systematic inquiry, mentorship and apprenticeship in our research programs and extend and model these practices in preparation of educators who go on to work in early learning, K-12, community and post-secondary contexts.

Engagement with partners or communities

In many fields of inquiry, engaging with communities outside academia leads to better scholarship. Those communities may include individuals, municipalities, First Nations, industry, NGOs or others. At SFU we support partnership within and outside academia to drive better scholarship and greater impact. This includes local and regional partnerships, national partnerships and international partnerships. 

Knowledge mobilization

Research is not complete until the created knowledge is shared. That sharing happens via many mechanisms including traditional academic publication, policy creation, newspaper op-eds, white papers, social media, performances, creative artifacts, patents/licensing, new product development, creation of a company and other forms. At SFU we embrace open science, data and publishing. We also foster a culture of innovation both in the way that we perform scholarly work and in the way that we support it. 

Priority areas

SFU is a comprehensive research university, with research and other scholarly activity spanning a wide range of disciplines and approaches. The priority areas identified below capture institutional priority areas for 2023-2028. 

Each of the priority areas below spans multiple disciplines. As an academic institution we are committed to building multi-disciplinary communities of practice in these areas. We also note that these priority areas intersect with each other and that some of the most interesting research happens at those intersections. For example, climate change is precipitating biodiversity loss. The One Health approach, which is actively employed by SFU researchers, recognizes that human health is connected to the health of animals and the environment thus strongly linking priority areas #1 and #2 below.  

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an international framework covering many of the most pressing issues of our time. Our university and our community members are committed to the SDGs and are putting them at the heart of our international engagement framework. Where relevant, links to SDGs are included in the priority areas .

Climate change represents one of the greatest challenges of our age. As a research topic, it crosses disciplines, touching deep societal, health and justice issues as well as climate science, mathematical modelling, biodiversity, and profound technological and economic change. While climate change is a global issue, its effects and the resources available to adapt and to mitigate future warming differ from community to community. Some communities will be pressed to adapt to drought and fire, while others will be combatting floods and landslides. Some will have access to considerable local renewable energy sources, and some will not. Different communities may therefore embrace different paths to resilience. Helping communities become resilient to the effects of the changing climate by integrating low-carbon approaches into their planning and integrating low-carbon technologies into their infrastructures is a daunting multidisciplinary challenge. Working with these same communities to provide education and support for their citizens is another aspect of the challenge. SFU’s approach includes developing solutions at the community and regional level, followed by sharing and scaling those solutions to make impacts globally. With research strengths that span all of the relevant disciplines, SFU is well-positioned to take on these challenges. This priority area— community-centred climate innovation —engages our researchers with all levels of government, industry and community members.

Learn more about community-centred climate innovation .

(SDGs  3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13)

The connection between the health and wellness of an individual, and the (global) community in which they live has never been more obvious. As we write this plan, British Columbia is in the midst of two public health emergencies—the global COVID-19 pandemic and a sharp rise in drug overdoses and deaths (the “opioid crisis”). These simultaneous emergencies have together exposed the effects of deep social inequities and discrimination, the fragility of our health systems, the psychological consequences of isolation, a lack of trust in authority/science and many other profound issues that can only be addressed through world-class research. SFU researchers are engaged in responding to the threats and burdens of disease via many approaches, including basic research into fundamental molecular and cellular processes, development of new technologies, tests and treatments for individuals, as well as education and public health approaches. They are also leaders in transforming our response to health issues through social determinants and cultural critique. Harnessing big data, genomics, molecular and cellular tools and treatments, wearable technologies, digital technologies, and other technological and social interventions, our researchers are influencing therapeutic development, health policy and individual health throughout the lifespan. SFU researchers also generate wellbeing in the communities they work with by engaging in mutual, respectful and empathetic processes of knowledge production. Harnessing research informed by indigeneity, nature-based experience, contemplation, and anti-racism can make important contributions to wellbeing, both individual and collective. 

(SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 10)

SFU researchers ask fundamental questions about the natural world, as well as our societies and cultures. Insights that arise from this work change the way we think about the world and the place of humans in it. SFU researchers measure and predict natural phenomena on multiple scales from the subatomic to the cosmic, from a single gene to a multi-celled organism, and from single entities to complex interacting systems of those entities. A fuller picture emerges when we examine the development and progression of our languages, cultures and knowledge systems. This includes examining the role of human creativity and critical making in the production of new knowledge and understanding. Our researchers use data, quantitative techniques, as well as qualitative approaches across a wide range of disciplines within this priority area. With more thorough insights into our complex world—both natural and cultural—we are better equipped to look forward, pushing the boundaries of discovery into new frontiers. Driven by curiosity, our researchers are deepening our understanding of the world.

The polarization of our society, mis/disinformation, threats to democracy, population migration and changing patterns of convergence and conflict challenge the structures of societies and shape the ways we interact with each other. Researchers at SFU are deeply engaged in studies of data and media democracy, and in questions of equity and justice in relation to environmental, educational, health, economic and governmental systems. This includes the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality. Matters of social inclusion, identity, diversity and belonging are key drivers behind how individuals and groups perceive, connect with, and learn about society at large. Considerations related to justice, equity and social responsibility also shape the ways we engage with communities, value their contributions, and inform a commitment to fostering dialogue, relationship building, imagination, critical design, and transformative learning. Environmental Social Governance research provides opportunities to foster the implementation of these values by industry. Fostering community participation in research is both a vehicle for social change and a critical source of scholarship.

(SDGs 5, 8, 10, 16)

Technology impacts every aspect of our lives—at multiple scales—from nanotechnology to satellite communication to technology for work and home life. These technologies are applied to all areas of human endeavor, from building a sustainable world, to improving human health, to transforming the way we teach and learn. SFU researchers are involved in new technology creation at all levels: creating the new materials that enable those technologies; engaging in design research and developing creative technologies that change how we interact with technology and each other; developing new types of hardware to enable future platforms like quantum computers; writing the algorithms required to process data and model the world around us as well as critiquing and educating people about the effects of those algorithms; and integrating and adapting existing technologies to a changing world. The adoption and use of emerging technologies are guided by management and policy research as one means to create economic and societal value and to engage in critical modelling of alternative technological futures. These research domains investigate the economic, environmental, health, political, educational and societal tradeoffs between incumbent industries and technologies and the emerging alternatives. SFU researchers also study the processes that underlie the adoption and use of new technologies—the process of bringing technologies “out of the lab” and into the hands of consumers and communities, as well as inequalities in technological uptake and impacts.

(SDGs 9, 12)

Have a question about the SFU's Strategic Research plan or the implementation plan?

Connect with us:  [email protected]

Research Strategic Plan

The CUSOM Research Strategic Plan, as developed and approved by the CUSOM Research Committee, aligns with and supports, CUSOM’s Mission.

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You Visit Tour. Webb Lion Fountain. June 1 2017. Photo David B. Hollingsworth

Old Dominion Launches University-Wide Research Strategic Plan

July 09, 2015.

A plan focused on research, scholarly, and creative expertise is the basis of a new Old Dominion University research agenda, which goes into effect this fall.

The Old Dominion Board of Visitors reviewed the Research Strategic Plan at its June meeting, allowing the Office of Research to move forward with implementing a framework enabling faculty to identify key areas of scholarship. This will help the University invest to grow activities and opportunities that further nurture ODU's mission, said Morris Foster, vice president for research.

The plan emphasizes local research opportunities with national and international interest, Foster said, which is summed up in the new research tagline "Innovate Locally/Transform Globally."

"For example, sea level rise has been a focus of University research, because it affects us locally, but what we're learning can be used around the world," he explained.

As a comprehensive research university, success will be measured in not only numbers, but in the impact of Old Dominion on the community locally, regionally and beyond.

One aspect of the plan includes the identification of opportunities in an organic, self-organized process led by faculty that assembles working groups centered on targeted, multidisciplinary areas matched with internal and external resources and partnerships.

"The new Research Strategic Plan for the University is a substantive and well-considered roadmap that will help guide researchers and administrators alike as ODU, as a multi-faceted institution, transitions to the next level of scholarship and creative activity," said Charles Sukenik, chair of the physics department and a member of the faculty steering committee that helped develop the plan.

With opportunities identified, goals include:

• An increase of federal research expenditures, which currently stand at $40 million in annual funding;
• Designate and develop multidisciplinary research areas to compete for National Centers of Excellence;
• Growth of industry-sponsored research by 10 percent of overall external funding over the next five years;
• Enhance the university's research reputation by promoting excellent work and scholarship and creative activities by focusing on prestigious awards, fellowships and promoting the quality of the work;

Growth of the university's entrepreneurial activities, including new businesses, intellectual property, partnerships and awards;

ODU will become a leader in the regional arts community; and

Dashboards to support and advocate on behalf of faculty research.

Coordination of collaboration across disciplines and academic units, and support for shared research facilities, equipment and support staff across departments, faculty and colleges are two outstanding parts of the plan, according to Stacie Raymer, professor and chair of Communication Disorders & Special Education.

"Through the Office of Research, interdisciplinary research will be facilitated through coordination and shared infrastructure which will support research efforts that might not otherwise be as successful and feasible," Raymer said.

The Office of Research convened a faculty steering committee last September to generate discussion and ideas that ultimately resulted in the draft document, created after the Old Dominion University Strategic Plan 2014-2019 mandated a plan in support of research goals. The committee was made up of 30 faculty members from across the University, and two open faculty forums were held in April for input on the plan.

Read the full Research Strategic Plan on the Office of Research Website .

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Boundless Possibility: 2030 Strategic Plan

We are the makers of our future.

So, let’s go big.

Let’s reach further and dig deeper. Abandon norms. Chase inspiration. Embrace the unconventional.

The limits for what we create and what we achieve are set by us and what we choose to be. Be bold. Be imaginative. Be extraordinary. Be whatever “ever better” means to you.

Be boundless.

Our 2030 strategic plan

Bold and transformational goals will guide the University of Rochester toward framing and solving the greatest challenges of the future.

Research excellence and global reputation

We are committed to building and reinvigorating our research ecosystem and leveraging our distinctive strengths in ways to increase our reputation as a leading global research institution by investing in innovation and growth in our areas of distinction.

Exceptional undergraduate and graduate education

We will reimagine undergraduate and graduate education at our research-intensive institution to continue enhancing and enriching the student experience so that we develop leaders, citizens of the world, and learners who embody our Meliora values.

Health care of the highest order

We will continue to expand and transform health care delivery, promote an inclusive culture, and build programs of excellence that span research, education, and clinical care to reinforce and enhance our position as a leading national academic medical center.

Faculty and staff success

We are committed to building a community of individuals who represent a wide range of identities and backgrounds and to ensuring that all who work here feel valued and respected to cultivate an inclusive culture that prioritizes the well-being, development, engagement, success, and diversity of our community.

Sustainable growth

We will modernize and optimize the way we budget and allocate resources to realize our University-wide aspirations, implementing a new finance and operational model that will enable future and sustainable growth and success.

Explore examples of how our students, faculty, and staff are exemplifying Boundless Possibility .

Student life gets a new champion

John Blackshear, Rochester’s first vice president for student life, is poised to reimagine the student experience.

This way to employee success

The Office of Human Resources has put miles on a modernization path that will better support the Rochester employees’ current and future needs.

Laser-focused on laser leadership

An NSF grant positions Rochester to lead the effort in development of the next generation of lasers.

Be inspired

Hear from members of our community who are conducting research related directly to the strategic planning process.

Be informed

Our 2030 strategic plan includes significant goals for our campus and community. We are committed to transparency and accountability as we move forward.

Strategic Plan - Research and Scholarship

2021-2025 university of kentucky research strategic plan, executive summary.

The UK Strategic Plan for Research covering the period of 2015 – 2020 included a strategic objective to expand scholarship, creative endeavors and research across the full range of disciplines to focus on the most important challenges facing the Commonwealth of Kentucky, our nation and our world. The plan detailed four major initiatives which served us well as we aligned research culture around this strategic objective.

As a high-level metric of research activity at UK during this period, we experienced an 8.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for grant and contract awards received by UK faculty, staff and students, and a 5.7% CAGR in research and development expenditures (2015-2020). To put this into perspective, our target CAGR for research expenditures within the 2015-2020 Research Strategic Plan was 1.9%. This impressive growth in extramural support of our research mission was achieved through the four major initiatives of the 2015-2020 Research Strategic Plan. In addition to growth in grants and contracts, our faculty, staff and students transformed our research culture to one that prioritizes work that improves the lives of those in Kentucky and around the world.

We have faced challenges impacting every aspect of our university mission since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Research was no exception to upset caused by the pandemic; we were forced to reduce our capacity to very low levels of essential research only followed by a gradual resumption, all the while focusing first on safety. This unexpected situation demanded a new look at how we support and perform research, offering both ongoing challenges as well as new modalities of achieving our goals.

As we accelerate out of the pandemic, we will build upon the overall objective and four initiatives of the 2015-2020 Research Strategic Plan. Through a process of careful introspection, we have revised goals and action items for each initiative to not only move us towards a re-envisioned future but also expand our research mission to improve the lives of our citizens. The following Strategic Initiatives and associated action items will facilitate continued growth, innovation and impact of the research and scholarly pursuits across the range of disciplines that comprise the fabric of our research mission. Finally, the following revised goals and action items are put into the context of UK PURPOSE, the institutional strategic plan.

Strategic Initiatives and Goals

Strategic initiative 1: improve the quality of the research infrastructure across campus..

Over the last 5 years, we have made many changes within our research infrastructure to support the vast array of research across our institution. These improvements to research infrastructure have moved us forward effectively, but there is still much work to be done in the ever-changing research environment.

• Action Item  1:  Grow research staff administration in a manner consistent with growth in extramural grants and contracts and focused on cultivating a culture of belonging, service and support.
• Action Item 2:  Expand staffing in emerging areas to address changes in federal regulations and research compliance.
• Action Item 3:  Strategically evaluate the organizational structure of research support units within the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and research administrative needs within Colleges and Centers to increase efficiency and effectiveness of operations consistent with best practices.
• Action Item 4:  Use the Research Space Workgroup to recommend policies and guidelines related to best practices in space allocation.
• Action Item 5:  Increased emphasis on communicating research successes to internal and external stakeholders.
• Action Item 6:  Recognize research achievements of our faculty, staff and trainees through staff assistance towards the pursuit of relevant honors and awards.
• Action Item 1:  Identify mechanisms to assist with equipment upgrades and needs throughout campus (i.e. individual research programs).
• Action Item 2:  Using the established review process for UK research service core facilities, evaluate potential new equipment needs or upgrades, new core facilities and services to address emerging areas of research (i.e., infectious disease and BSL3 facility), and the potential need to sunset underutilized cores.
• Action Item 1:  Engage with various stakeholders to learn more about existing expertise and create a campus-wide inventory. Identify opportunities for research growth that foster convergence of computational work and data science.
• Action Item 2:  Facilitate development of applications for funding opportunities in data science, major instrumentation/facility grants related to data science, and alignment with multidisciplinary academic programming.
• Action Item 3:  Facilitate the development of an institutional research plan for this emerging research area.
• Action Item 1: Create a Research Leadership academy to support career development in research administration and leadership, develop large programmatic grants, white papers or other mechanisms and avenues that support multidisciplinary research, and develop new research structures around emerging themes.

For more information, please download our full Research Strategic Plan (PDF)

Strategic Initiative 2: Foster an inclusive culture of research success to retain and develop outstanding faculty, staff and students.

The 2015-2020 UK Research Strategic Plan created an exciting and engaging culture around our research mission that made a direct impact on recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty, staff and students. It is imperative that we continue to foster a culture facilitating success of all research in an inclusive, responsible and ethical manner. As important as the research itself, it is vital that UK Research fosters a culture of working together in an inclusive and collaborative manner to improve the lives of citizens of the Commonwealth and the world. Our research must be grounded in responsible conduct and inclusive in design and implementation. Further, our research endeavors must promote and recognize success and lay the groundwork for research career advancement.

• Action Item 1:  Continue programs supporting and recognizing research across the full spectrum of disciplines.
• Action Item 2:  Continue training program offerings that promote a diverse and inclusive research workforce and train the next generation of research leaders.
• Action Item 1:  Continue the Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowships and the Institutional Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (IPEP) training/mentoring program that provides training and research career development of a diverse research workforce. Working in partnership with the Graduate School, expand this program to postdocs and graduate students across campus.
• Action Item 1:  Develop a Research Leadership Academy to mentor research career development and leadership. 
• Action Item 2:  Establish and support the newly reorganized Office of Undergraduate Research to enhance the visibility of and opportunities for students participating in undergraduate research experiences.
• Action Item 3:  Develop stronger relationships with Philanthropy to further enhance the funding base for research and the university community. Enhance the UKRF endowment, the UK Venture Fund and consider a dedicated Philanthropy position.

Strategic Initiative 3: Invest strategically in UK’s existing strengths and areas of growth in selected focus areas that benefit and enrich the lives of those in the Commonwealth.

As the land-grant, flagship public university of the Commonwealth, we support all research across the full range of disciplines. We have an obligation as the University for Kentucky to use our research mission to improve the lives of our citizens. During the 2015-2020 Research Strategic Plan, we:

• Used a systematic process to identify seven research priorities: cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes/obesity, energy, neuroscience, substance use disorders and diversity and inclusion/UNited In True Racial Equity (UNITE). Developed a program of financial support for research in areas not traditionally amenable to external funding.
• Created an infrastructure to identify and support nomination of UK scholars for research honors and awards.

In the new Strategic Plan for Research, we will:

• Expand access to and participation within RPAs.
• Support UK researchers across the institution, including those within RPAs, in nominations for research awards and honors.  
• Action Item 1:  Review progress of each RPA towards strategic growth, including quantitative data and highlight drivers of growth. This should include development of a business plan for sustainability.
• Action Item 2:  Articulate a plan to enhance community and belonging within and between RPAs.
• Action Item 3:  Working with the UNITE RPA, develop plans for diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Action Item 4:  Develop commercialization plans/pathways/maps for research within RPAs.
• Action Item 5:  Implement a critical pathways model for RPA member awards, honors and nominations.

Strategic Initiative 4: Strengthen engagement with communities and translate outcomes of research for the benefit of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

In response to the 2015-2020 strategic plan, University of Kentucky Research achieved growth in its research enterprise through partnership engagement. Partnerships were realized through large research projects, innovation-driven economic development initiatives, and infrastructure building through new centers and institutes. UK Research will continue and grow engagement efforts to empower translation of research to improve the lives of the citizens of the Commonwealth and the world. Achieving the 2015-2020 strategic plan goals to increase the impact of its intellectual property portfolio, UK completed its fourth consecutive year of record-breaking metrics relating to commercialization and entrepreneurial activity. Inventions, patents filed, licenses, and startup activity all increased significantly, and critical partnerships were established with local and state stakeholders to foster economic and social impact from UK innovation. UK led numerous important research and community programs and partnerships to realize impact. As a result, a new goal will be to sustain statewide leadership and develop a culture for economic and social impact through research innovation and commercialization.

• Action Item 1: Promote greater awareness of existing community-engaged programs and projects.
• Action Item 2: Cultivate community-engaged research and innovation for continued growth.
• Action Item 1:  Enhance and promote a culture for innovation.
• Action Item 2:  Focus on equitable, innovation-based economic development by broadening participation in innovation and economic impact activities.

Institutional Alignment

University of kentucky strategic plan (uk purpose), university of kentucky research strategic plan, strategic initiative 1: improve the quality of the research infrastructure on campus., acknowledgements, uk research strategic planning working group.

• Rodney Andrews, Senior Associate Vice President for Research
• Lisa Cassis, Vice President for Research
• Linda Dwoskin, Senior Associate Vice President for Research
• Kathy Grzech, Assistant Vice President for Programmatic Grant Development
• Ian McClure, Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Impact
• Baron Wolf, Assistant Vice President for Research and Director, Research Analytics

UK Research Strategic Plan Advisory Group

John Balk, College of Engineering Allan Butterfield, Centers and Institutes Kim Carter, Office of Sponsored Projects Administration Billy Clark, Research Information Services Alan Daugherty, Core Facilities Emily Denehy, Staff (Technical) Ella Dunbar, Office of Legal Counsel John Fowlkes, Diabetes and Obesity RPA Jim Geddes, College of Medicine Alison Gustafson, Faculty Senate Larry Holloway Provost’s Office Brian Jackson, Graduate School (Staff/Administrative) Eleanor Johnson, Graduate School (Student) Phil Kern, Center for Clinical and Translational Science Eric King, Federal Relations Helene Lake-Bullock, Office of Research Integrity Betty Lorch, College of Arts and Sciences Joseph Lutz, Graduate School (Postdoctoral) Lesley Oliver, Land Grant Engagement Nancy Schoenberg, Community-Engaged Research Daret St. Clair, Cancer RPA Danelle Stevens-Watkins, UNITE RPA Susannah Stitzer, Staff (Professional/Administrative) Teresa Waters, College of Public Health Donna Wilcock, Neuroscience Priority Area

2021-2025 Strategic Plan

Download our 2021-2025 Strategic Plan

Announcements

In June 2023, the federal government issued an interim rule that prohibits use of the social media app TikTok on any device being used in furtherance of a contract or project funded by federal monies.

• Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing Office of Research Integrity, Office of Sponsored Projects Administration, Proposal Development Office, Vice President For Research What is the new Data Management and Sharing (DMS) policy in brief?

One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan

Office of the vice president for research and innovation.

Research is for Everyone.

Every day at VCU, our scientists, faculty, physicians, nurses, students, and staff work to address society’s grand challenges through research. Together, they are advancing transdisciplinary innovation to improve humanity and save the planet.

Transforming innovation  starts at VCU

Enrich the human experience. Improve society. Optimize health. Support sustainable environments. Every research project at VCU falls into one, several, or all four of these strategic priorities.

Enriching the human experience

Focus on innovation and ways to inform policy change through transdisciplinary knowledge creation, applications in technology and innovations in creative practice.

Achieving a just and equitable society

Develop a national model for transforming DEI research and scholarship into measurable, societally relevant outcomes.

Optimizing health

Harness our strengths in basic research, personalized medicine, public health and innovations in medicine to address health disparities that lead to optimized health for all.

Supporting sustainable energy and environments

Bring about the convergence of technological innovation and sustainability to solve society’s critical energy and environmental problems.

Culture of collaboration

A foundation of bringing societal impact through a culture of collaboration transcends all other themes of our strategic plan. Collaborative projects drive innovation and discoveries that improve our community, our society and our world. We commit to improving the human condition through a culture of creativity, team science, collaborative research and recognition at VCU. This plan is for everyone in the university who is or could be involved with research, scholarship and creative practice.

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• Research Strategic Planning

A New Upstate Research Strategic Plan; Re-Imagining the Research Mission Through the Upstate Discovery Challenge

It has been 12 years since the development of the last strategic plan for research at Upstate Medical University and since then we have seen strong growth, both in the numbers of faculty with research programs, but also in the size of our portfolio and expenditures. In addition, new areas of strength have emerged with the recruitment of additional faculty with diverse interests and expertise. Therefore, it is time to assess our current state and map out a strategy to propel us forward for accelerated growth, greater impact, and increased reputation.

The process by which we will develop a new research strategic plan is designed to be inclusive and from the bottom up, with broad faculty input through focused working groups that will bring their ideas and priorities up to a synthesis committee that will meld the ideas, priorities, and mini- strategies into a cohesive and synergistic, strategic plan. Each of the Chairs of the Working Groups, will serve on the Synthesis Committee. The straw-man strategic plan, will be shared with the community in advance of a research retreat during which further input and ideation will be  broadened to inform the crafting of the final research strategic plan.

Working Groups:

• Bioinformatics • Cancer • Clinical Research, sub-committee on the Clinical Research Unit (CRU) and future CTSA application • Education Research • Entrepreneurship and Industry Relations • Environmental Health and Environmental Medicine • Facilities, Instrumentation, and Operations • Global Health, Infectious Disease, and COVID-19 • Immunity and Auto-Immunity in Disease • Mechanisms of Disease • Neuroscience

Click here to view the Executive Summary

Click here to view full report

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Thank you for visiting the research website. Your feedback is valuable to us as we strive to support researchers and provide information about the exciting research conducted at Upstate Medical University.

Deliverables and outcomes

As a key component of the University’s Boundless Possibility strategic plan, the University master plan is an opportunity to engage a broad range of voices from across our community, fostering a collaborative and inclusive approach to the growth and development of our physical spaces.

The University-wide plan will include the River Campus, Medical Center, South Campus, Eastman School of Music, Ambulatory Orthopaedic Center, and the Memorial Art Gallery, and it covers critical areas such as our academic and research spaces, housing, clinical facilities, transportation, parking, services, sustainability, branding, and more.

Thinking holistically about how the University’s physical environment can advance the institution toward shared goals, the project team will develop a readily accessible guide to design and construction covering the next five years, as well as a responsive framework for future decision-making that will position the University for success for the next 20 years.

Deliverables

“Campus as neighborhoods” vision for the next 20 years, with specifics for the next five years.

Recommends sustainable practices that will reduce the operational footprint of our campuses while maintaining management practices to mitigate risks from natural, financial, and other disasters.

Respects the University’s historic character while accommodating expansion of existing programs, or the pursuit of new programs, through the adaptive re-use and modernization of University facilities.

Develops a strategic capital planning model for scenario analysis, financial need forecasts, and facilitating sustainable growth.

Evaluates and coordinates campus and campus-neighborhood accessibility, connectivity to surrounding neighborhoods, and access and circulation for projected growth, including shipping and receiving.

Establishes detailed recommendations for signage and branding that supports “One University” identity, way-finding, and campus and campus-neighborhood gateway presence.

Documents the architectural character of each campus neighborhood and establishes guidelines to ensure design proposals are consistent with the Framework Plan, promote brand identity, and maintain sense of place.

Documents each campus neighborhood’s environmental and open-space character, establishes guidelines to ensure design proposals are consistent with the Framework Plan, identifies opportunities for increased accessibility and recreation, and considers best practices in sustainable site development.

Documents suitability of available land, including surface parking, within a Geographic Information System (GIS) that will inform future campus development.

Develops revised IPD zoning that reduces entitlement review risks with the City of Rochester and the Town of Brighton while providing greater flexibility in campus development.

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Bridge to Faculty (BTF) Program

Accelerating Academic Excellence: Pathways to Faculty for Postdoctoral Fellows

The University of Texas at San Antonio values a scholarly community that promotes intellectual challenge, innovation and an all-encompassing educational environment driving the success of our students. In our role as an HSI Research University, we have a special responsibility to advance an academic community enriched by individuals reflecting perspectives and experiences who can have an outsized impact as exemplars and role models for our students and next generation of thought leaders. To that end, the Bridge to Faculty (BTF) Program is intended to increase the academic research community by supporting promising scholars and educators from various backgrounds whose life and research experiences will contribute significantly to academic excellence at UTSA and prepare them for future faculty appointment.

The BTF Program is part of our  Strategic Hiring Initiative,  which promotes the strategic hiring of outstanding scholars to advance institutional excellence. This fellowship program is designed to promote and nurture the work of outstanding early-career postdoctoral scholars at UTSA and prepare the participants for faculty positions at UTSA (or elsewhere). Successful nominees will be individuals with varying life experiences and backgrounds who have potential for both a successful fellowship and a possible future tenure-track faculty appointment at UTSA.

The purpose of the BTF program is to develop a cadre of postdoctoral fellows prepared to enter the tenure track, by both fostering the continued development of an independent research program and supporting the development of innovative online or experiential teaching skills. This 2-year program is designed to advance the career success of postdoctoral fellows by:  1) providing specific professional development, training and research mentoring to establish a strong independent research program competitive for external support through work with faculty, and 2) providing one-on-one training in experiential and/or online pedagogy.

Promising scholars from any discipline are welcomed; postdoctoral candidates with demonstrated interest or expertise in data science will receive first priority given UTSA’s broad scholarly expertise reflected in our School of Data Science. To contribute to the University’s knowledge enterprise, the Fellows will also be paired with a team of research mentors from the home college or another interdisciplinary scholar who will help connect them to the resources necessary to advance their research agenda and advance interdisciplinary inquiry.  Fellows will develop an Individualized Development Plan in collaboration with the faculty mentors to chart the desired experiences and skills to promote the further development of academic competencies and advance the research goals of the Fellows.

To develop teaching skills and contribute to UTSA’s  Classroom to Career  initiative, Fellows will work closely with the staff of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs in the Graduate School, division of Academic Innovation, and select offices specializing in high-impact educational practices and experiential learning opportunities. Fellows will spend time developing teaching skills (e.g., online course development, designing service learning courses, research-based, or professional development courses, organizing a study abroad, etc.) that are not normally emphasized during graduate study. Mentorship by UTSA faculty and staff who have deep experience in these areas is central to this program.

Upon successful completion of the program, Fellows will be evaluated during the final year for faculty appointment within a discipline at UTSA.

Background and Rationale

UTSA is in a strong position to provide Fellows in-depth research mentorship to advance their preparation for success on the tenure track. This position of strength, in part, comes from the university’s strategic investment in data science research, education, and resources. UTSA stands among a select cohort of national universities which recognize that the advancement and broad application of data science is integral to discovery and learning. The university has strengths in data analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence which it is integrating across all its colleges to enable ubiquitous digital approaches to scholarship.

The School of Data Science (SDS) is concentrating UTSA’s talent and resources in data science in a new purpose-built 167,000-square-foot building in the urban core of San Antonio, the seventh largest city and the fastest growing majority-minority city in the United States. SDS is the cornerstone of the university’s 10-year plan to develop its Downtown Campus as a destination in the heart of the city’s tech corridor for 1) producing highly skilled professionals and researchers in data science and analytics and 2) advancing economic development, personal prosperity, and social mobility at the urban core.  The new building houses multiple PhD and MS degree programs, at least 30 faculty engaged in data-intensive research and education from across all colleges, and research centers, such as the Matrix AI Consortium, the Open Cloud Institute, the UT Health Analytics Center, and the San Antonio City Data Lab.

Furthermore, UTSA sits in a rich collaborative ecosystem – with dense industry and government partners that comprise our  National Security Collaboration Center , as well as Texas Biomed, Southwest Research Institute, and BAMC. These partners are collaborating in an exciting Precision Therapeutics Initiative, and regularly work together in joint ventures (SALSI, etc.). UTSA has a strong connection to UT Health San Antonio, which is our sister medical school within the University of Texas system, and enjoys many existing collaborations, including with the  Institute for Health Promotion Research , the  Military Health Institute , and the  joint PhD in Translational Science . Additionally, more than a dozen UTSA faculty have adjoint appoints in UT Health departments including Medicine, Nursing, Ophthalmology, Pediatrics, Population Health Sciences, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.  Other robust connections are to the  Health Collaborative , the  Methodist Health Ministries ,  Baptist Health Foundation  and the  City of San Antonio R&D League ; Postdoctoral fellows will have the incredible opportunity to take advantage of these existing partnerships and associated mentors to contribute to the expansion of collaborations among institutions. Finally, UTSA has received the Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation due to the university’s numerous community partnerships with city organizations, including the Westside Community Partnership.

UTSA’s  Westside Community Partnership is a placed-based strategy that aims to addresses the most tenacious challenges to the heart of San Antonio’s Mexican American working class community. The Westside continues to be a source of pride for the community, producing leaders, artists, visionaries and professionals. The WCP harnesses the human, intellectual and economic power of UTSA to improve the lives of the people of the Westside. The WCP is an integral part of UTSA’s strategy to reach its destination of being a premier urban-serving institution of the future. An urban-serving university is more than just a university located in an urban area. According to the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, of which UTSA is a member, to be urban-serving means to be, and to be seen as, an anchor institution “whose physical presence is integral to the social, cultural, and economic well-being of the community” in which the university is located.

Evaluation Criteria

Successful candidates typically will have received their doctorate within the last two years. Priority will be given to promising candidates that evidence a strong interest  or  demonstrated competency in one or more of the critical areas below:

• Research and scholarship that uses approaches to advance the state and region’s economic, social and cultural needs
• Innovation that reflects multicultural communities or voices not well represented;
• Research to understand the factors and experiences of historically underrepresented groups in higher education
• Partnerships in outreach and service that promote community engagement;
• Broader programs of research concerned with eliminating disparities in access to and/or outcomes that could be enhanced through application of new data science methodologies.
• Engagements with students that advance expanding access, including building or leading bridge and mentoring programs for undergraduates;
• Potential to contribute to our understanding of the conditions that enhance access to and full participation in an academic community;
• Excitement for developing innovations in pedagogy and curriculum to engage a student body;
• Use and contribute to community-oriented data science methods, e.g, work with open source tools and/or in reproducibility;
• Experience with mentoring students from groups that have been under-utilized in higher education;
• Interest in establishing a nationally competitive research program;
• Potential to make long-term contribution to the knowledge enterprise at UTSA and meaningfully engage researchers in and out of the Fellows discipline, department and college.

Application Process

Applications will be reviewed in an on-going manner, with positions open until filled. Specific start date during Summer is negotiable.

The Special Opportunity Hiring Mechanism is used to accomplish BTF hires, and the general procedure to accomplish hiring is described in this document . BTF Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis during the academic year.

Once promising, eligible individuals have been identified by faculty and nominated to the Chair, the Dean submits a written BTF proposal describing how the candidate’s background, experience and other qualifications will advance academic excellence and strategic priorities, as outlined in this Initiative. This proposal should address how this hire advances excellence and should specify the candidate’s track record, experience, and commitments to research, teaching, service, and outreach collaborations.

Also describe the candidate vetting process, including the benchmarks that must be met to be considered for a faculty position, how the candidate will be reviewed by faculty and others prior to hire, and attach the preliminary offer letter, Source of Funds form, draft start-up support list and the individual’s CV. If more than one BTF proposal is submitted by a dean, provide the priority order of request in relation to other requests that have been submitted by the school or college.

Selection Process

BTF reviews are ongoing under the Special Opportunity Hiring mechanism, and will be completed as soon as is practicable. The Provost reviews the Dean’s written candidate nomination proposal, funding plan and required materials. If the proposal and funding plan are approved after discussion with the Dean, the nominated individual is approved as a candidate and the hiring process is then authorized to proceed per established Academic Affairs guidance.

BTF Fellows will be paired with two research mentors (one from the pertinent college) who will support them in advancing their Individualized Development Plan (IDP), and connect them to the scholarly resources necessary to advance their research agendas. Activities may include the following:

• Orientation that includes in-depth conversations between the mentor(s) and the Postdoctoral Researcher. Mutual expectations will be discussed and agreed upon in advance.
• Career Counseling that is directed at providing the Fellow with the skills, knowledge, and experience needed to excel in his/her chosen career path. Fellows will be encouraged to participate in networking activities and other UTSA-hosted research symposia to engage with academics and researchers within their fields of expertise.
• Experience with Preparation of Grant Proposals will be gained by direct involvement of the Fellow in proposals prepared by the mentor(s). The Fellow will have an opportunity to learn best practices in proposal preparation, including identification of key research questions, definition of objectives, description of approach and rationale, and construction of a work plan, timeline and budget. Fellows will also be encouraged to participate in research-related professional development opportunities offered through the Office of the Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Knowledge Enterprise.
• Publications and Presentations are expected to result from the work supported by the Fellow. Fellows will receive guidance and training in the preparation of manuscripts for scientific journals and presentations at conferences.
• Instruction in Professional Practices, to be provided on a regular basis in the context of the research work, that includes fundamentals of the data scientific methods and other standards of professional practice in the Fellow’s applicable field(s) of expertise. In addition, Fellows will be encouraged to affiliate with one or more professional societies in their chosen field. Opportunities for structured didactic coursework and certificates also are available.

The division of Academic Innovation is home to professionals in instructional design, pedagogy development, learning and video technologies that are available for one-on-one consultation and intensive mentoring, determined by the needs and interests of the candidate.

Success of the Fellow’s Individualized Development Plan (IDP) will be assessed by the mentor(s) monitoring their personal progress toward their career goals as they engage in this program.

BTF is an institutional investment, funded by the Strategic Hiring Initiative administered by Academic Affairs. As a Fellow, 100% of the cost is covered by Academic Affairs. When the Fellow successfully transitions to an Assistant Professor, s/he will be treated with the following funding split:

Please feel free to submit questions or input to [email protected] .

2023-2024 Strategic Plan Report for the College of Arts and Sciences

Executive summary.

The College of Arts and Sciences created four committees, each focusing on a goal from the Blueprint for Success. In this report, committees describe their achievements in Fall 2023 and explain their activity in Spring 2024.

Groups organized around four goals:

• G1. Improve Educational Access and Student Success
• G2. Innovation for Institutional Impact
• G3. Advance Research and Creative Activity
• G4. Foster Thriving Community

Each group reported resounding success.

The Student Success and Retention (SSR) Implementation Group launched their Student Success Leadership Team, Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan (SERP) with a data appendix, a data team to support COAS administration and an advising council.

The Innovation Lab Strategic Planning Group revised application tracks for 2023-2024 to focus on curriculum modernization and student recruitment and retention. They collaborated with the Strategic Enrollment and Retention Planning Group (SERP) to launch a coordinated effort connected to education, assessment and alignment. The group received 27 notice of intent (NOI) applications—seven for student recruitment and retention and 20 for curriculum modernization.

The Research and Creative Activity (RCA) Implementation Group began developing a hub for research and creative activity. The RCA hub will promote the healthy, meaningful, sustainable and inclusive growth of research and creative activity within COAS by providing faculty, postdocs and graduate students with administrative support and resources that support scholarship.

The Thriving Community Implementation Group prepared and conducted studies of faculty workloads, faculty and staff compensation, graduate student support and equity, overall wellness and professional opportunities. They also sourced $7,034 in grant funding for 11 projects in 2023.

Student Success and Retention (SSR) Implementation Group

Members: Casey Iezzi (LING), Clay Cox (BIO/COAS), Cynthia Campbell (PSYC), Dan Scott (ADVS), David Brandt (COAS), Debra Purdy (DWS), Jason Herbeck (DWL), John Bieter (HIST), Jon Schneider (IPS/BAS), Jose Lee-Perez (COAS), Karen Viskupic (GEO), Kathrine Johnson (MATH), Kimberly Henderson (PSYC), Manda Hicks (COMM), Megan Gambs (HCRI), Nancy Tacke (COAS), Nico Diaz (IFITS), Nicole Brun-Mercer (LING) and Sarah Dalrymple (BIO).

Lead: Kelly Myers (COAS)

Fall 2023 Progress

Back in the fall of 2022, the SSR implementation group started at the beginning with Goal 1, Strategy 1 of the COAS Strategic Plan:

G1.S1. Create and enact a comprehensive strategic enrollment and student success plan, including components related to supporting the whole student, recruitment, retention/graduation, and addressing equity gaps.

To advance Goal 1, Strategy 1, we needed to create a Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan (SERP) that nests within both the college and university plans. Susan Shadle and Kris Collins, leaders of university-level SERP, often say that the “P” in “SERP” stands for process as much as plan. Following their lead, the SSR team put process at the center of our approach to SERP development and implementation. That means, we embrace the SERP as an opportunity to engage in an ongoing equity-minded strategic planning process to make a sustainable impact on student retention and satisfaction, particularly for our most vulnerable students.

Fall 2023 marks an important milestone for the SSR group. Guided by Casey Iezzi’s strategic planning leadership and expertise, we now have a COAS SERP and Data Appendix . At the beginning of the Fall semester, we shared the full draft of the SERP document with the SSR group for analysis and discussion. The team carefully and collaboratively reviewed the document, yielding the following key questions for implementation:

• How can we make the excellent student success work that’s already happening across the college more visible through the SERP process?
• How will we directly involve students in all phases of our SERP work, from needs assessment through implementation?
• How will we embed faculty and staff recognition and support into all aspects of SERP-related work?

These questions are essential because they represent potential barriers to advancing the goals in the COAS SERP¹. In our SSR group discussions, we consistently work to bring barriers to the surface so that we can examine and address them. We know that creating a clear-eyed view of our challenges is the only path to sustainable change-making. Once we identify barriers, we turn them into guiding principles and action items. For example, from the key questions that emerged this fall, we named/reinforced core commitments that guide our work:

• We must honor the incredible student success work that is embedded or emerging across our college. We are not starting from scratch; instead, we are organizing for impact to advance shared equity goals.
• We cannot guess what our students need, and we cannot look at quantitative data alone. We must listen to our students’ voices and experiences, and we must directly include them in the work.
• We must support the faculty and staff who support students. SERP work cannot advance as added, invisible labor.

When we are facing decisions and implementing ideas, we must always look at existing work, seek ways to understand student experiences, and carefully consider impacts on faculty and staff.

This fall we saw an important opportunity to live our core commitments when Amanda Ashley, Kevin Feris and the Innovation Lab Strategic Planning Group invited us into collaboration. First and foremost, we were happy to receive the invitation because we believe that partnering across areas is an essential element of student success work in COAS (see “Collective Impact” in SERP document). We also know that the Innovation Lab grants will surface amazing work—both existing and emerging—across our college. Having reviewed NOIs and proposals, we looked for ways to create new connections (e.g., to the SERP goals, to colleagues and students, to information and tools). From this collaboration across implementation groups, many more collaborative efforts will grow.

During the fall semester, the SSR group also formed two college-level teams that will support our SERP implementation. First, Casey Iezzi launched the COAS Data Team to support COAS academic leaders, faculty and staff in their efforts to design and track student success initiatives. With eight members, the COAS Data Team aims to improve data access in order to support the design, implementation, and tracking of student success work. In addition, we formed the COAS Advising Council. The group operates as a learning space for identifying and prioritizing college-level advising strengths, needs and challenges. The Council is also a space where we can recognize innovative advising solutions and practices across our college to assess the impact of policy changes, technological tools/advances and other factors that affect advising in the college.

¹ As you will see in the document, we aim to achieve a 90% Success Rate for all COAS majors by 2030, with a 50% reduction in equity gaps for our SERP student populations. Achieving this universal goal means that we will have raised our overall baseline Success Rate by 10%. Over time, this means we will need to improve our success rates by about 2% each year, from 2024 to 2030.

Spring 2024 Progress

With the SERP as our roadmap, the SSR group is moving into an exciting new phase of coordinated student support across our college. With José Lee-Perez (First Year Experience), David Brandt (COAS Advising), Megan Gambs (Student Persistence and Re-enrollment) and Casey Iezzi (SERP), we have college-level leadership in place to advance and support student success and retention efforts. Importantly, though, even with dedicated leadership, we understand that student support work can feel additive, weighty and unrecognized for faculty and staff. This spring the SSR team has been actively exploring ways that we can increase visibility and understanding of our colleagues’ student-success-related work.

The COAS SERP emphasizes the importance of partnership. The SERP document points to Collective Impact as our model for enacting meaningful change through networking. Equity gaps are a large-scale, intractable social problem that has persisted over decades; there is no easy solution to create the change we want to see. This kind of work must be done collectively, combining efforts and aligning around a common agenda. As we implement the SERP, we look forward to learning with and from the many student, faculty and staff leaders across our college.

Innovation Lab Strategic Planning Group

Members: Anthony Ellertson (GIMM), Eva Kannenberger (COAS), Gautam Basu Thakur (HCS), Henry Charlier (CHEM), John Ziker (ANTHRO), Lisa Brady (HIS), Michelle Bennett (IPS) and John Ziker (ANTHRO).

Leads: Kevin Feris (SOE) and Amanda Ashley (SOA).

The Innovation Lab Strategic Planning Group supports COAS’s strategic plan goal: G2: Innovation for Institutional Impact. The lab specifically aligns with related strategy Establish individual and collective opportunity and accountability for innovation (G2.S3) where:

“Through a coordinated effort, aligned with the COAS and university SERPs, we will provide a distinct system for submitting and vetting innovative ideas in the college. This process will offer a clear path for sharing innovative ideas, as well as an archive of ideas from which new collaborations can emerge.”

Scope and Funding

The Innovation Lab is designed to:

• Create tangible evidence of innovation emerging from and supported by COAS.
• Provide faculty with a venue for seeking support as they incubate new ideas in curriculum and academic programming.
• Provide funds to faculty to study and solve problems/challenges and capitalize on opportunities in the college and acknowledge and reward their work in a manner equivalent to scholarship.
• Support the development of new interdisciplinary programming within emerging schools.
• Incentivize and reward progress towards SERP goals and other COAS objectives.

The Innovation Lab is in its second year with $250,000 in one-time funds. These funds stem from the Fall 2023 2.5% reallocation from COAS to Central to cover structural budget deficit and where each college was able to retain 0.5% for revenue generating opportunities.

2022-2023 Awardees and Projects

In our September 2023 COAS newsletter, we announced the award winners from our first cohort. They include:

• Allison Simler-Williamson (Biological Science), Konrad Meister and Oliviero Andreussi (Chemistry) – The ArtSci Community at Boise State: An interdisciplinary platform for inquiry and Innovation
• Alex Urquhart (Biological Science) – Biol100 Lab Materials and OER Resources to Lower Student Costs and Improve Student Experience
• Cynthia Miller (Media, Blue House Agency) – COAS Promotional Partnership
• Emily Meredith (Biological Science) and AASC staff members: Matt Schmasow, Brittany Artz, and Carissa Wilcox – A Biology Learning Center to Increase STEM Student Success
• John Bieter, Lisa Brady, Sara Fry, Stewart Gardner (History) and Russ Heller (Boise School District, ret.) – Annual Conference for Idaho Social Studies Teachers
• Joseph Meredith (Chemistry) – Organic Chemistry 1 Workbook & Course Revisions
• Kristin Snopkowski (Anthropology) – Professional Development and Mentorship for Adjunct Instructors Teaching High-enrollment Foundations of the Discipline courses in Anthropology
• Mariah Devereux Herbeck, Brittney Gehirg and Amber Hoye (World Languages) – Français inclusif: Diverse and Inclusive French 101-202 Curriculum
• Mark Schmitz, Karen Viskupic, Ellyn Enderlin (Geosciences) and Matt Schmasow (CASS) – Geosciences Learning Hub
• Oliviero Andreussi (Chemistry) – Python in the Undergraduate Curriculum
• Sherena Huntsman (Department of Writing Studies) – Accessibility Hub
• Steve Olsen-Smith (English Literature) Lisa Hunt (School of the Arts)- IIIF Adoption at Boise State University
• Rulon Wood, Jim Wareck, and Charlie Hewitt (Theatre, Film and Creative Writing) – Lecture Series and Mentorship Program
• Brian Wiley and Eryn Pierce (Art, Design and Visual Studies) – Restructuring the Graphic Design I and II Curriculum
• Reggie Jayne (Interdisciplinary Professional Studies) – Interdisciplinary Studies Undergraduate Certificate
• Erin Taylor (Chemistry) – Modernized Analytical Chemistry Laboratory Curriculum

The Innovation Lab convened in the fall consisting of previous and new team members from across the college. Our primary work consisted of five parts:

• Reflecting on our process last year to inform our work this year.
• Identifying our lab’s scope and related application tracks for the 2023-2024 funding program.
• Developing a progress report structure and check-in process for projects funded in 2022-2023.
• Reviewing and revising our process including interest, assessment, and support for 2023-2024.
• Distributing our NOI call for 2023-2024. You can find our general call, notice of intent and rubric here .

During our fall reflection process, we discussed a few important areas that we wanted to address this cycle. It’s important to provide more support and guidance about how to help teams learn about project sustainability. We need to ensure that staff time is accounted for in the project budgets. We should work with other strategic planning groups to share knowledge, expertise, and perceptions. We need to provide more feedback to applicants on their proposals to provide more effective mentoring, and to help with future alignment and interests.

We were thrilled to partner with the Strategic Enrollment and Retention Planning Group (SERP) for the Lab’s direction to create a stronger process and integrated program. Together we developed a joint call and related materials. The primary outcome of that work thus far is the creation of the two primary tracks within this year’s RFP: 1) Strategic Enrollment & Retention Plan (SERP), and 2) Curricular Innovation, Career & Experiential Learning, High Impact Practices.

We sent out the joint general call and specific criteria for the NOI in December 2023 through the COAS listserv. We’d like to thank Makenzie Phillips for helping us communicate the information to the college.

The Innovation Lab is having a busy spring semester, which includes several elements in supporting previous and future projects. We have:

• Scheduled two open houses in consultation with the SERP team to help prepare faculty and staff for this year’s RFP.
• Explored opportunities to partner with the Center for Research and Creative Activity on grant writing and proposal feedback practices.
• Facilitated and participated in the NOI review process for new applications.
• Developed the full proposal criteria, rubric and assessment process.
• Created the request for renewal funds for applications funded in 2022-2023 that align with this year’s tracks and that follow the same review process as new proposals.

We are currently:

• Exploring options for providing grant writing and assessing support from the Center for Research and Creative Activity.
• Providing feedback to those who were funded and not funded to offer guidance about where there may be other partners and resources, or how to strengthen applications in the future.

We look forward to seeing our colleagues’ ideas about how to move our college forward to support our strategic plan.

Research and Creative Activity (RCA) Implementation Group

Members: Brittany Archuleta (RCA), Stephen Crowley (PHIL), Raquel Davis (TFCW), Brandon Fudge (UA), Shay Duman Gillette (RCA), Charles Hannah (PHYS), Kendra Kaiser (GEO), Emma Kirks (UA), Richard Klautsch (TFCW), Lily Lee (ADVS), Jenn Mallette (DWS), Del Parkinson (MUS), Denise Pfeiffer (DRED), Jailynn Flaack Sanchez (RCA), Diane Smith (BRI), Rebecca Som-Castellano (SOC/HES), Tim Thornes (LING), Carolina Vierra (DWL), Michal Temkin-Martinez (LING), Kate Walker (ADVS) and Denise Wingett (BIO).

Lead: Marie-Anne de Graaff (COAS)

1. Increased capacity for extramural funds management: A team of RCA administrators has been hired, and provides extramural funds management support as a shared service. RCA hub administrators serve faculty from many departments across COAS with their pre- and post award extramural fund management needs. This helps faculty spend less time on administrative duties, leaving them with more time to focus on growing their research and creative activity portfolios. In concert, we have established regular meetings for staff who support faculty with extramural fund management. The goals of these meetings are to identify best practices in extramural funds management, create shared resources and standardize operating procedures within COAS. This work has led to a more sustainable work-load for staff, and has built a supportive community of staff that share similar tasks.

2. Increased financial support for professional development of faculty and graduate students: The RCA hub provides financial support for travel expenses incurred by department chairs, faculty, lecturers and graduate students to advance their RCA. These include a Graduate Travel Support Program, an updated version of the Faculty Travel Support Program, and a Chair Travel Program. In addition, we created a Graduate Assistantship (GA) Support Program with the intent to support and grow graduate education and research and creative activity at Boise State University.

3. Increased availability of resources for faculty engaged in RCA: The RCA hub is building a website with a variety of resources that help faculty, students and staff with their RCA needs, including templates needed as appendices for grant proposals, a directory, field and studio safety guidelines and protocols. The website also hosts an ‘Intake Form’ which faculty, staff and students can use to request assistance and support with their RCA needs. These resources will support faculty as they navigate growing their research and creative activity.

Preliminary Work to Inform the Design of the Hub

Listening tour: To ensure that the hub is developed in a manner that is consistent with the needs of units from across the college, we conducted a listening tour with faculty and support staff. During this listening tour, we asked faculty to respond to the following prompts:

• What is going well in the context of support you receive to pursue your research and creative activities?
• Imagine it is two years from now and the hub has been set up and has started. What kinds of support do you want to see coming from the hub for your unit and your area/”flavor” of research and creative scholarship?

We asked support staff the following questions:

• What is going well with the support you provide to your faculty?
• What are your pain points?
• Are there any resources you wish you had that you don’t?
• What could increase retention in these positions?
• What if any changes would you like to see happen with workflow/process?

Answers to these questions were relatively consistent across units, and can be summarized as follows:

• Faculty would like more help with pre-award related tasks, including finding extramural funding opportunities, preparing a proposal and its budget and effectively communicating with the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP).
• Faculty indicated that they’d like more help with post-award related tasks, including accounting and receiving budget updates, and help with hiring, travel and purchasing.
• Support staff asked for more training and a more manageable workload associated with extramural funds management.
• Faculty would appreciate more opportunities for community building across COAS to learn about other’s work and find new opportunities for collaboration.
• Support staff would appreciate more opportunities for community building across COAS to learn about best practices in extramural funds management.
• Faculty would like to see more support for travel to conferences.
• There was a request for more (interdisciplinary) graduate student support.
• Support with communication of scholarship, both within and outside of the University
• Faculty would like to have greater access to resources that help them conduct their research and creative activity, including templates for appendices required for proposal preparation, such as broader impact statements, mentoring plans, and support for lab and field safety.

Quantitative data assessment: The RCA hub structure is also informed by quantitative assessments of research expenditures and Facilities & Administration (F&A) returns. We used network analysis to link research expenditures to business managers, which advanced our understanding of workload associated with extramural awards management. Further conversations with Chairs and business managers, allowed us to identify how much more capacity (as a percent of FTE) is needed in COAS for administrative support associated with research and creative activity.

RCA hub staff: Based on this work we have staffed the hub with Shay Dumas Gillette as RCA hub manager, and Brittany Archuleta and Jailynn Flaack Sanchez as RCA administrators. Continued requests for support will grow the team to five RCA administrators by July 2024.

RCA Hub Support Functions

Pre- and post-award support: Our team of RCA administrators provides administrative support for extramural funds management, both on the front-end by assisting with proposal preparation, and on the back-end by assisting with accounting, hiring, purchasing and travel. Services include monthly budget updates, and recurring meetings to project expenditures. This team operates as a shared service to bring additional pre-and post-award extramural funds management capacity to COAS, and to liaison with OSP on behalf of faculty. Currently, the team serves faculty from the School of the Environment and the departments of History, Physics, Biology, English Literature, World Languages, Writing Studies and Anthropology. We will be able to support more faculty with their extramural funds management needs and alleviate the workloads of more department support staff as we continue to recruit RCA administrators.

Extramural funds management – support for staff: We have established monthly meetings for staff who support faculty with extramural fund management. The goals of these meetings are to identify best practices in extramural funds management, create shared resources, standardize operating procedures within COAS and build a supportive community of staff that share similar tasks.

Internal funding opportunities: (1) Faculty travel: We recognize the importance of travel for faculty’s scholarship, and have increased the level of financial support (as available) for travel expenses incurred by regular, tenure track faculty and lecturers to $1000. Examples of eligible travel expenses would include presentations of research in scholarly meetings, preparing/presenting performances or art works, and conference attendance for the purpose of professional development in research, creative activity or teaching. (2) Graduate student travel: We have implemented a COAS student travel support program to encourage and support graduate students from all disciplines in COAS to present their scholarly work at academic societies or professional meetings. We hope that this funding will help catalyze networking opportunities, collaborative efforts, career preparation, and communication skills for our graduate students. So far, we have supported 17 graduate students with their travel needs. (3) Chair travel: we will provide financial support for travel expenses incurred by Department Chairs who do not receive other forms of support for their research and creative activity from the college. Award amounts are up to $2000.

Graduate student support: We will create a Graduate Assistantship (GA) Support Program which is intended to directly support GAs in research and creative activity. Proposals for GA funding may be submitted for the following requests: (1) a one-year GA stipend that allows for recruitment of new and exceptional students to Boise State; (2) GA funds that support start-up packages for new faculty; (3) awards that leverage investments by others in support of RCA; (4) funds designated as insurance against students’ support pending from other external sources, such as scholarships, or grant proposals; (5) GA funds that align with the strategic research priorities of the University.

GA equity study: We are conducting a comparative analysis of GA support at peer and aspirational programs. For this study, we use the National Center for Education Statistics to identify peer and aspirational programs. We’ve developed a brief survey asking about GA stipends, and tuition and health insurance support, which is sent out to program administrators. Once we have collected all our data, we will compare our GA support with support students get in peer programs, and normalize the data using a cost-of-living index. These data will be used to inform decisions about financial support of our graduate students.

Faculty community building: A group of faculty and staff are developing the Faculty Transdisciplinary Development Program. The goal of this program is to create opportunities for faculty from across COAS to build community through low-barrier, easily accessible events that enable faculty to learn about others’ work and facilitate conversation. Importantly, the activities of faculty associated with this program will be recognized by department chairs and the COAS Dean as faculty workload. Our RCA team is also building out an RCA directory that will increase the ease with which faculty can navigate RCA across COAS.

Support with communication of scholarship: Working groups within our RCA implementation team are working on the question of how we can more effectively communicate our scholarship around the college and to the community at large. We are generating ideas, and we will implement them in collaboration with the communications specialist in COAS.

General support related to RCA: We are creating an RCA hub website with a variety of resources that help faculty, students and staff with their RCA needs. Resources range from templates needed as appendices for grant proposals to field safety guidelines and protocols. The website will also host an ‘Intake Form’, which faculty, staff and students can fill out to request assistance and support. The RCA hub team will review these requests and help find solutions. This work bridges to and supports ongoing large-scale research initiatives at the university, including Grand Challenges and the Center for Advancing Research and Creative Activity which is in development in the Division of Research and Economic Development. In developing the hub, we are intentionally coordinating these related and parallel efforts on campus to avoid unnecessary duplication and maximize needed capacity.

Thriving Community Implementation Group

Members: Vidana Brophy (COAS), Ann Campbell (ENGLIT), Daniel Fologea (PHYS), Jim Fredricksen (DWS), Susan Hamblin (GEO), Margaret Kinzel (MATH), Rick Moore (MEDIA), Katherine O’Sullivan (MEDIA), Jennifer Weaver (PSYC).

Leads: Doug Bullock (COAS) and Tony Roark (COAS).

The Thriving Community Implementation group supports Strategies 1 and 2 of Goal 4 of the COAS strategic plan:

• G4.S1. Advance a learning and working environment dedicated to the flourishing, sense of belonging, and freedom of expression among all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the university.
• G4.S1. Create a comprehensive, whole-employee experience that aligns university resources and is designed to enhance employee well-being and career growth at the university.

Faculty Workload Study

Workload study is paused during the fall of 2023. There is some possibility of resuming work in the spring, but nothing to report at this time.

Faculty and Staff Compensation Study

We have nearly completed a comprehensive study of all faculty salaries compared to CUPA benchmarks. Data cleaning is in the final stages. The report formed the basis of a strategic budget request submitted in the spring of 2024.

Conduct a GA/TA/RA Support and Equity Study

Associate Dean Marie-Anne de Graaff and RCA Hub staff advanced this project by soliciting/collecting data from peer programs and peer institutions regarding support and compensation for graduate assistants. The work is ongoing, and the results will provide a benchmark against which COAS graduate programs can be assessed.

College-based Wellness Support

The Implementation Group developed the COAS Community Survey to assess the perceptions and experiences of college faculty and staff with respect to wellness and support. It was open to all COAS faculty and staff from February 1 to 14.

The results of the survey will inform the group’s future efforts to develop local solutions and, where appropriate, to advocate for broader change.

The survey will be implemented annually to track progress and inform activity.

Professional Development Opportunities

The COAS Community Survey will also assess the perceptions and experiences of college faculty and staff with respect to professional development opportunities.

Thriving Community Grants

The grant program continues to operate successfully. Program guidelines have been updated to clarify applicant and project eligibility, consistent with the program’s intended goals. In addition, the post-project reporting mechanism has been streamlined to improve the user experience and information quality.

In the 2023 calendar year, 11 projects were funded for a total of $7,034, or an average of ~$640 per project. The post-project reports will be reviewed by the TCIG to identify transferable and/or generalizable community-building approaches.

Download the report PDF

Back to the strategic plan, college of arts and sciences.

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June 5, 2024

• From Provost Mendez: Next-Gen K-State strategic enrollment planning initiative launched

Submitted by Jesse Perez Mendez

Dear colleagues, 

As K-State continues to implement key elements of the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan , the university is acutely focused on the work needed to support the achievement of two strategic imperatives: Growing our total student enrollment to 30,000 learners by 2030 and making meaningful improvements in our graduation and retention rates across all student populations. Coupled with this growth in headcount will be an increased focus on opportunities to grow net tuition revenue — a key revenue source for the university. 

As part of this important work, the Office of the Provost is partnering with a dedicated team of enrollment experts at Huron Consulting Group to support the development a new comprehensive five-year strategic enrollment plan. Our goal is to have the new plan in place in October 2024, with work taking place over the summer and into the fall. 

The strategic enrollment plan will be directly informed by the imperatives in the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan and will focus on further refining priorities and year-over-year enrollment goals for all student and learner populations. The plan will outline specific strategies and tactics that support our ability to achieve 2025 and 2030 enrollment, retention and graduation rate success metrics and to realize additional tuition revenue.

While the university's most recent strategic enrollment plan, implemented beginning in 2018, was primarily focused on undergraduate students, this planning initiative will take a more comprehensive, integrated approach, in line with the operational excellence framework and provost's office organizational redesign . The objectives of this planning process include:

• To facilitate a data-informed assessment and conversations on the current state of Kansas State University's enrollment and retention, focused on identifying areas of opportunity across undergraduate, graduate and alternative credential-seeking learners, inclusive of online students and all other populations.
• To develop a comprehensive, five-year strategic enrollment plan to define and drive institutional priorities for student/learner enrollment. 
• To establish a planning and implementation structure and associated working groups to develop the strategic enrollment plan and subsequently drive its execution.

Initial work is already underway, including data collection that will inform the current state diagnostic work and interviews with university leaders and their teams engaged in enrollment work. A strategic enrollment planning structure has been put into place, including an executive planning committee, four advisory planning groups and a data and information collection team. The Huron team will work in close consultation with all these groups as well as the Deans Council. 

The executive planning committee will provide guidance throughout the planning process and help set forth the strategic priorities and critical enablers that will help drive enrollment growth, tuition revenue generation and student success at K-State. 

The four advisory groups include university leaders from both central and academic units who have deep contextual knowledge and functional responsibility for K-State's current enrollment, retention and student success environment. These groups will help the Huron team build out initiatives and action items, bringing their expertise and knowledge of the effort necessary to implement any recommended initiatives related to enrollment and net tuition revenue growth. The advisory planning groups are:

• Undergraduate, inclusive of transfer and international
• Graduate, inclusive of international
• K-State Online, primarily fully online students across our campuses, inclusive of undergraduate and graduate
• Retention and Student Success, inclusive of undergraduate and graduate

The data and information collection team provides data, information and documentation to support diagnostic assessment of our current strategic enrollment environment and the development of the comprehensive strategic enrollment plan.

I thank the more than 40 K-Staters who have already begun the work of supporting the planning process. To be successful, we will also need to hear from many of you across our university community to ensure all voices and perspectives are represented. This may take the form of focus groups, open forums and surveys, including a review process seeking K-State community feedback on the draft plan as we begin the fall semester.

I invite you to visit the strategic enrollment planning website to learn more about the planning process, where we are and what's next. Please send in questions or suggestions to [email protected] .

Our enrollment planning effort is a proactive response to an increasingly complex and competitive market for prospective students and learners at the undergraduate, graduate and alternative credential levels. Additionally, it responds to our need to improve our operational infrastructure to support larger student and learner populations and success outcomes related to retention, the student/learner experience, academic success and graduation rates.

Growing enrollment is a top priority for the university, and it's foundational to achieving our vision of becoming the next-generation land-grant university by 2030. It will require a fierce focus across the university. I am confident that together, we will create a plan to guide our actions and set a course for the coming years that will strengthen our enrollment and ensure we continue to serve the students of Kansas State University, both now and in the future. 

Go 'Cats, Jesse Perez Mendez Provost and executive vice president 

In this issue

From the provost.

• From Provost Mendez: Joining the K-State family

From the administration

• Inaugural cohort of University Outstanding Scholars announced

News and research

• K-State researchers announce clinical study for improved lung cancer treatment
• National Strategic Selling Institute awards $38,500 in student merit awards at annual benefit auction
• Men's and women's basketball season tickets are on sale now
• Attend candidate open forum for director of University Printing
• Attend Scheherazade Music Festival June 11-13
• 'Getting Started' webinars for incoming graduate students

Human resources, benefits and training

• Building Your Conflict Management Toolkit offered June 17
• Collaborative Communication for Supervisors offered June 17

Personnel changes

• Associate Registrar Susan Cooper retiring after 32 years of service

Health and safety

• Researchers asked to review inventories, notify university select agent program if using listed toxins

Kudos, publications and presentations

• K-State Salina faculty and staff members celebrated with annual awards
• HRIS, KSIS and DARS maintenance scheduled for June 9
• Enhance your Excel spreadsheets with tables, images and icons
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UP Strategic Plan 2023-2029: Public Service Through Transformative UP Education

The University of the Philippines has developed a Strategic Plan for the term of UP President Angelo Jimenez, with the theme of “Transformative Education in the Service of the Nation.”

With a focus on fostering a just, equitable, and sustainable society, UP’s strategic themes prioritize preparing graduates for the future, promoting public service for the common good and ensuring transparent and accountable governance.

The Strategic Plan 2023-2029 embodies UP’s commitment to contributing to national growth and sustainable development.

Rooted in the principles of “Honor, Excellence, and Service,” UP aims to address pressing societal challenges through its core roles as a teaching, research and public service university, as as the country’s sole national university.

Teaching, Research, Innovation and Creative Work, Public Service, Consultative and Accountable Governance

10 Flagship Programs

The key to achieving the University’s goals under the Strategic Plan are the ten Flagship Programs (FPs) being implemented across the UP System.

Each FP represents a concerted effort to leverage UP’s expertise and resources for maximum impact on national progress. These programs spanning from academic excellence to digital transformation, are strategically aligned with UP’s mandate as the national university.

Academic Excellence

UP’s focus on “Academic Excellence in Teaching, Research, Innovation, and Creative Work” fuels collaborative, multidisciplinary research endeavors addressing pressing social issues.

By refining its core curriculum and expanding academic programs, P fosters systemic transformation and equitable access to education, pioneering lifelong learning initiatives though innovative digital platforms and initiatives like MOOCs.

Inclusive Admissions

UP’s initiative for “A More Inclusive University Admissions Policy” seeks to balance excellence with equity by revising admissions criteria to consider economic status and geographic origins alongside academic merit.

Through collaborations with stakeholders and innovative programs like establishing new UPCAT testing centers in remote areas and the proposed Hatid Iskolar Program, UP aims to increase representation from underprivileged communities and provide comprehensive support for all aspiring students, no matter their socioeconomic backgrounds.

Research and Innovation

The third flagship, “Research and Innovative Collaborations through Research Groups/Creative Studios and Technology Transfers,” aims to establish UP as a hub of innovation by fostering a robust ecosystem that facilitates the commercialization of research outputs and nurtures startups.

Through initiatives like the expanded University Innovation Fellowship Program and mainstreaming innovation in the academic curriculum, UP empowers faculty, researchers, and students to drive positive change and contribute to the economic and social development of the Philippines.

Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL)

Flagship Program 4, “Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) for National and Global Reach,” revolutionizes education by providing accessible and inclusive learning opportunities through innovative online platforms.

Utilizing technologies like Moodle-powered Learning Management Systems, UP’s UPOU offers a diverse range of degree programs and open online courses, reaching learners worldwide and fostering a borderless, transformative approach to academia through initiatives like UP VINTA or Ventures for International and Transformative Academia.

Archipelagic and Oceanic Virtual University (AOVU)

The “Archipelagic and Ocean Virtual University (AOVU),” UP’s fifth flagship, pioneers a transformative approach to understanding and utilizing our archipelagic environment for sustainable development.

Hosted in UP Diliman with satellite offices across key regions, the AOVU offers innovative post- graduate programs and research initiatives focused on marine conservation and the Blue Economy, fostering regional collaboration and leadership in archipelagic studies through strategic partnerships and digital platforms.

Active and Collaborative Partnerships

Flagship Program 6, “Active and Collaborative Partnerships with SUCs, NGAs, LGUs, Private Sector, and Civil Society,” fosters inclusive development through strategic collaborations.

This flagship program is exemplified by the UP SUC/LUC Collaboration Office, which serves as a hub for cross-sectoral cooperation, and the Bangsamoro Development Initiatives, which empower communities through participatory governance and address pressing socio- economic challenges. Projects like the UP Pahinungod House, Starlink in Sulu, and Pailaw sa Butuan demonstrate UP’s commitment to innovative solutions and inclusive development in partnership with various stakeholders.

Arts and Culture

“Arts and Culture,” UP’s seventh Flagship Program, envisions a vibrant cultural landscape within the University that promotes indigenous knowledge, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community engagement.

Through initiatives like cultural bearers’ programs, annual festivals, and the establishment of transdisciplinary museums and creative hubs, UP fosters creativity, wellness, and social awareness. With a focus on arts education, conservation, and policy influence, UP aims to cultivate a thriving arts ecosystem that enriches both the university and society at large.

Expansion of Public Service Offices

The flagship on the “Expansion of Public Service Offices, Ugnayan ng Pahinungod, Padayon, and NSTP Programs” embodies UP’s commitment to community engagement and societal impact. By strengthening infrastructure, incentivizing volunteerism, and institutionalizing service- learning, UP enhances its role as a public service university.

Through initiatives like the establishment of the UP Public Service Fund and the Public Service Productivity Award, UP empowers its constituents to make meaningful contributions to society, fostering a culture of service and civic responsibility.

Quality Management System (QMS) and Quality Assurance (QA)

Flagship Program 9, “Institutionalization of Quality Management System and Enhancement of Quality Assurance of Degree Programs,” underscores UP’s commitment to academic excellence and continuous improvement.

Through internal and external quality assurance mechanisms, UP ensures the highest standards in teaching, learning, and support services across all degree programs, while projects like the Accreditation of Quality Management Systems and the Finance Transformation Program strengthen governance and resource utilization.

Through these endeavors, UP fosters a culture of excellence and accountability, reinforcing its position as a premier national university.

Digital Transformation

UP’s tenth flagship program highlights “UP’s Digital Transformation Program,” representing a strategic shift towards a service-oriented, learner-centric institution, integrating advanced technologies to enhance teaching, research, and administrative processes.

Through initiatives like the Center for Intelligent Systems and the UP Data Commons, UP fosters innovation, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making across its flagship programs. By embracing digital platforms and tools, UP aims to optimize workflows, promote inclusivity, and strengthen its position as a leading national university in the digital age.

Read more about UP’s Digital Transformation efforts here: Making the right click: Institutionalizing UP’s digital transformation

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