Office of the Vice President for Research
Strategic Plan, 1999
Preface
The University of Georgia has a tripartite mission: to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things. While teaching, public service, and research are of equal importance in the fulfillment of the University’s obligations to the citizens of the state, it is faculty-directed research that will determine whether the University of Georgia becomes one of the nation’s leading public educational institutions. A vigorous and healthy research program, dedicated to the origination of knowledge as well as its dissemination, will enable the University both to take leadership in the solution of intellectual and practical problems of importance to the world and to keep pace with the ever evolving demands of our society in teaching and public service.
The Office of the Vice President for Research must act as an advocate for research, identifying areas in the University with high potential for research achievement and channeling resources into those areas, aiding in the procurement and disbursal of funds for the conduct of research in all areas, and defending the priority of research in a demanding academic environment.
The place of research in an academic institution is vulnerable. Research is often the least structured part of faculty workloads, and research time may be sacrificed unintentionally to the more immediate obligations of teaching and administration. On a broad scale the proliferation of faculty responsibilities will inevitably affect the University’s research productivity. The Office of the Vice President for Research recognizes that material resources, while necessary for competitive success, will not suffice to stimulate and maintain high quality research, and that time for thinking and writing is just as critical. The Office of the Vice President for Research will therefore consider time as part of the resources it may provide in support of research projects and will endeavor to protect faculty research time.
Strategic Actions
To enable The University of Georgia to achieve prominence among major research universities, as well as fulfill its educational mission and meet its responsibilities as a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university, the Office of the Vice President for Research will take the following strategic actions during the first decade of the 21st century:
1) The Office of the Vice President for Research will identify “stellar projects” –projects with long-term significance–that show promise of obtaining national or international attention; and will provide increased support to individual faculty for those projects. To implement this initiative the Vice President will establish by February 1, 2000, in addition to the existing Senior Faculty and Junior Faculty Research Grant programs, a program to award increased support, as appropriate, for “stellar projects.” The Vice President will appoint a committee to set up procedures and solicit nominations.
The increased support will constitute a short-term assistance package tailored to the needs of the particular project. Such support might include, but not be limited to, provision of release time for research, subsidy of travel, purchase of equipment, and funding of additional graduate students and post-doctoral students. The increased support may be awarded to tenure-track faculty of any rank, including those faculty holding special professorships.
2) The Office of the Vice President for Research will identify a limited number of research areas in the University that show promise of becoming internationally outstanding in their scope and in their impact; and will target those areas for increased support.
To implement this initiative the Vice President will appoint by February 1, 2000 a Research Vision Task Force, a committee of distinguished faculty and senior administrators, which may include on an ad hoc basis consultants from outside the University, to initiate a systematic review of the research conducted throughout the University, both on campus and off campus; to determine what areas exhibit the greatest potential for achieving high national ranking in the next ten years; to prioritize the targeted areas for increased support; and to recommend appropriate action. The Task Force will become a standing committee charged with making periodic assessments of research conducted at the University and forwarding recommendations for increased support to the Vice President.
The increased support will constitute a long-term enhancement of the targeted areas’ potential for nationally significant research. Such support might include, but not be limited to, the establishment of additional faculty lines, the appointment of senior scholars, the augmentation of graduate student stipends, the funding of additional graduate students, the creation of academic support accounts for faculty, the hiring of a development officer to raise private monies, the improvement of research facilities, the purchase of equipment, and the acquisition of additional research space.
3) The Office of the Vice President for Research will identify a limited number of new research areas in which the University should develop significant strength in the next twenty years; and will provide funds to build faculty and programs in those areas.
The broad scientific and cultural forces at work in our global society will inevitably produce research opportunities in areas in which few universities are currently represented. The University will be alert to these opportunities and will initiate programs in areas where an investment of resources may enable the University to achieve international prominence in the areas twenty years from now.
To implement this initiative the Vice President will charge, by February 1, 2000, the Research Vision Task Force, composed of distinguished faculty and senior administrators, which may include consultants from outside the University, to recommend directions for future investment in the University’s research programs. In so doing, the Task Force will take into account both the University’s existing strengths, which can complement new programs, and the opportunities for the University to take leadership in research important to the world.
Conclusion
This report describes three strategic actions that the Office of the Vice President for Research can take to promote research at the University of Georgia over the next ten years. It is the product of the deliberations of the Research Advisory Committee, composed of faculty representing many diverse disciplines engaged in research at the University.
The committee met frequently during the spring of 1999 to establish goals for the Office of the Vice President for Research and the steps that could be taken to meet them. The committee membership and the schedule of meetings are presented in Appendix I.
To commence the strategic planning, the committee distributed a set of questions to its members, soliciting recommendations of actions the Office of the Vice President for Research might take to advance research at the university. A summary of the questions and the responses is presented as Appendix II. Upon consideration of the responses to the questionnaire, the committee realized that it was not prepared to evaluate and substantiate many of the recommendations related to specific research initiatives or to ensure that it was not overlooking other initiatives worthy of support. The committee also realized that many of the recommendations fell outside the purview of the Office of the Vice President for Research.
However, the questionnaire did serve the purpose of guiding committee discussion toward a strategic plan for the Office of the Vice President for Research. The committee came to unanimous agreement on the strategy of identifying research areas and individual projects that show promise of becoming outstanding and targeting those areas for increased support. The long-range goal is to make the University of Georgia one of the nation’s outstanding research universities in 2020.
Submitted by the Research Advisory Committee
May 3, 1999
Appendix I
Research Advisory Committee
Dr. Donna E. Alvermann, Research Professor of Reading Education
Dr. John C. Avise, Research Professor of Genetics
Dr. Gary K. Bertsch, University Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Trade and Security
Dr. Betty Jean Craige, University Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Humanities and Arts
Dr. Rex L. Forehand, Research Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute for Behavioral Research
Dr. Richard M. Graham, Professor of Music and Director of the School of Music
Dr. Andrew J. Granville, David C. Barrow Professor of Mathematics
Dr. Stanley H. Kleven, Research Professor and Head of Avian Medicine
Dr. Edward Law, D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Dr. Lois K. Miller, Research Professor of Entomology, Microbiology, and Genetics
Dr. James E. Nagel, John O. Eidson Distinguished Professor of English
Dr. James H. Prestegard, Eminent Scholar in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dr. H. Ronald Pulliam, Regents’ Professor of Ecology
Dr. Susan R. Wessler, Research Professor of Botany and Genetics
Chair of OVPR Strategic Planning Committee - Dr. Betty Jean Craige
Co-Chair of OVPR Strategic Planning Committee - Dr. James H. Prestegard
Meeting Schedule for OVPR Strategic Planning Committee
February 8, 10:00 - 628 GSRC
March 8, 2:00 - 628 GSRC
March 18, 2:00 - 628 GSRC
April 7, 2:00 - 628 GSRC
May 3, 2:00 - 628 GSRC
Appendix II
Responses to Questions
1. What are the major problems that should be addressed by OVPR during the next decade?
Need for better space for conduct of research in all disciplines
Need for better physical equipment for researchers
Need for rigorous assessment of the University’s strengths and subsequent targeting of investments in those areas
Increased demand for accountability and productivity
Increased competition for external funding
Continuance of strong support for basic and applied research by OVPR–in the humanities as well as the sciences and social sciences--in face of increased pressures for external support: “we should not be driven by the profit motive.”
“UGA will never be a great university so long as it restricts its emphasis in research to the ‘practical applications.’”
Maintenance of strong support for research in face of growing undergraduate enrollment at UGA
Determination of the University’s appropriate investment in the biological sciences in relation to other research areas
Improvement of infrastructure support for research in all academic areas
Greater interface between OVPR and deans of colleges
“Our objective should be that the research be excellent, not that it be in a certain area.”
Establish and maintain an appropriate balance between basic scientific research and the applied research and application of new knowledge consistent with land-grant/sea-grant/space-grant mission of the University
More openly establish and clearly communicate to the faculty the OVPR policies, permitted practices, avoidance of conflicts of interest, and other expectations imposed upon faculty operating entrepreneurial enterprises under split faculty/enterprise appointments, including expectations regarding their contributions and support of the University through faculty governance.
2. What strategic actions could OVPR take in the next decade and what would be the cost?
a) to increase external funding
Make a senior administrative appointment to oversee the development of Foundation funds to support research and creative work in the humanities and arts
Find new money to support a biomedical initiative (hire new faculty in biomedical and genomics areas; encourage interdisciplinary collaboration in biomedical research)
Build on the University’s strength: biological sciences, where the University has made its greatest material investment during the last two decades
Decrease number of positions in “dysfunctional applied biology departments” and increase number of positions in good research departments
Redistribute teaching responsibilities to have the greater burden fall on the applied scientists; support recipients of important external grants by a reduction in course assignments
Develop standard policies for the start-up of new companies
Conceptualize the human health sciences more broadly across the University
Support existing programs by providing space and necessary infrastructure to enable researchers to expand their programs
Hire senior faculty and nurture junior faculty working in interdisciplinary fields who have good records for external funding
Require recipients of OVPR grants to follow up with an external grant application
Provide release time for grant proposal writing
Sponsor grant proposal writing seminars
Simplify the documentation and cover sheets required with grant proposals
Direct a larger portion of University funds to cost-sharing and cost-matching arrangements
Provide small one-time grants for obtaining preliminary data and developing demonstration programs
Capture increased support from in-state sources by better informing and encouraging faculty regarding state/industry-driven funding opportunities, such as traditional industries programs, GRA, etc. b) to retain good research faculty
Make additional academic support accounts available (by competition) to outstanding researchers at all ranks
Continue support beyond start-up packages designed for recruitment
Provide technological support services at college level
Provide sabbaticals
Enhance opportunities for existing faculty to benefit and professionally grow, via creative leave strategies
c) to nurture and mentor young faculty
Provide a competition for junior faculty fellowships to cover a semester of research and proposal development
Reduce teaching obligations of graduate students
Provide competitive incremental fellowships to raise stipends for best students
d) to promote interdisciplinary research
e) to recruit good research faculty
OVPR should play a role in recruitment
3. What could OVPR do to enhance research productivity?
a) in the humanities
Develop an endowment to support research and creative arts. The endowment could subsidize salaries and provide academic support accounts for new recruits and excellent scholars
Subsidize starting salaries for new hires to enable colleges to hire the very best scholars on the market (at all levels, but particularly at the assistant professor level)
Increase availability of travel funds for international conferences (of importance to humanists, who do not usually have grant support for travel)–via increased commitment of royalty-generated income and other UGARF sources, as well as from University Foundation
Increase OVPR support to make time available for research and creative work b) in the arts
Subsidize starting salaries for new hires to enable colleges to hire the very best artists on the market (at all levels, but particularly at the assistant professor level)
Increase availability of travel funds for international conferences (of importance to artists and performers, who do not usually have grant support for travel)–via increased commitment of royalty-generated income and other UGARF sources, as well as from University Foundation
Increase OVPR support to make time available for research and creative work
c) in the sciences
Provide release time for conducting research and writing grant proposals
Secure “hard money” sources for providing an increased level of technical support personnel
d) in the social sciences
Provide release time for conducting research and writing grant proposals
e) generally
Recruit the best researchers available
Invest in technological hardware that could be shared by researchers in different disciplines (such as functional magnetic resonancy imaging)
Provide opportunities to interact and collaborate across disciplines
Develop additional ways for OVPR to subsidize release time for research
Attract outstanding graduate students by offering multi-year research assistantships
Improve space and physical facilities; provide space for “research communities”
Reduce course load for productive researchers
4. What will be the University’s major research opportunities during the next decade?
Applied research for addressing global problems, such as environmental degradation, militarization, development.
Biomedical science
Bioinformatics
Materials science (biomaterials and molecular machines)
Science policy
Interdisciplinary work involving collaboration among faculty in earth sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences, engineering, and social sciences
Collaboration across research, public service and outreach, and instruction sectors of the University
Development of biomedical research (in collaboration with Medical College of Georgia)
Increased funding opportunities in the social sciences, particularly in conjunction with the biological sciences
Development of life-long learning opportunities for the public
Funding opportunities for minority researchers
5. What are the logical boundaries to research efforts on the UGA campus? For example, are there opportunities/obstacles for research associated with remote medical and engineering schools in the state?
Few boundaries in the age of email, fax, and distance learning
Need for greater collaboration with research institutions in the region
Opportunities for sharing of faculty and joint training of students in research institutions in the region
There now exists “non-remotely” on the UGA campus a broad-based engineering faculty supporting two distinct nationally accredited professional engineering degree programs from the baccalaureate to the PhD levels. See http://www.bae.uga.edu/. There is potential for collaboration that offering significant benefit for research campus-wide.
6. What other issues should the Strategic Planning Committee address?
Balance between push for external funding and availability from UGA of support for grant proposal development
Increase in long-term support for graduate students
Cost of buy-outs for courses
Relationship of funds spent on semi-permanent postdocs to funds spent on graduate students
