Launch of New Centers

Typically, for an area to be considered as one that might support a new college research center, the area must (1) be in a focused research domain of considerable societal and scientific import relevant to the college’s mission; (2) have substantive current extramural research support from multiple funders in that area; (3) have extramurally funded projects deeply engaging more than one HHD faculty member; (4) be able to demonstrate the potential to deliver on all aspects of a center-level mission especially those related to cross-departmental collaboration (see above) and (5) have a faculty member willing to assume leadership of the center.

Any faculty member interested in advancing a center idea should consult with the associate dean for research and their academic unit head prior to beginning serious planning work. The associate dean for research may request pre-proposal documentation. Should the associate dean for research and the dean support the advancement of a center proposal, a formal proposal following all guidelines within RAG05: Establishing Research Institutes, Consortia, and Centers will be prepared. The proposal will be reviewed by the associate dean for research and dean prior to advancement to the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research (OSVPR). An ad hoc evaluation group may also be convened to consider the appropriateness and feasibility of a new center. The dean will make the final decision on advancement to the OSVPR and, if approved at the University level, the center launch timeline. At this time, a decision will be made about the amount and duration of any incubation allocation and any launch plan performance metrics.

For example, new centers may have a fixed amount of time to achieve a metric (like exceeding the 1:1 research to administrative allocation in a certain number of years). If launch metrics are not achieved, the new center could move to the sunset phase.

The establishment of a center may divert resources from an academic unit in the near term. This can occur because of movement of existing grants to the center, which could reduce academic unit RIF share, or reduction of salary release return associated with the effort split of a director previously fully in the academic unit. The college may agree to a temporary infusion of funds (typically no longer than three years) to ease the transition. However, in the long run the growth of research related to the center theme is expected to financially benefit academic units adversely financially affected in the short term through wholesale growth of extramural funding in thematic areas related to the center, which should increase salary release for multiple department faculty and grow the total research in and out of the center in related areas.