AAAS Research Competitiveness Service presents, "Leading the Changing University Research Environment."

This symposium was presented at the AAAS Annual Meeting 2004.

Schedule:

9am Ed Derrick, Director, AAAS Research Competitiveness Program

Introduction

9:05 – 9:30 Irwin Feller, Senior Visiting Scientist, AAAS

Whither Interdisciplinarity in an Era of Strategic Planning

9:30 – 10:00 Jim Roberts, Interim Vice Provost for Research, University of Kansas, and President, KU Center for Research, Inc.

Building a Better University through Research Centers

10:00 – 10:30 Sally Frost Mason, Provost, Purdue University

A Delicate Balance: Research, Teaching, Resource Allocation and Interdisciplinary Work across the Academy

10:30 – 10:40 Break and Solicitation of Questions

10:40 – 11:10 Karen Holbrook, President, Ohio State University

The High Cost of Success in Research

11:10 – 11:30 Bob Crangle, Rose and Crangle, Ltd.

Among All Those Things Hardest to Predict ... The Future is Perhaps the Most Difficult.

11:30 – noon Audience participation

Abstract:

Today's research universities face a conundrum. Academic disciplines have long provided structure, serving as focal points for undergraduate majors, homes for tenure, and repositories of academic culture. Although the productivity and quality assurance this provides remain compelling for many, this structure is accused of impeding the spontaneity and nimbleness of research.

Modern research universities must be able to react and reconfigure rapidly in light of:

--increasing emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach to solving grand challenges of society;

--realization of the role of the university as an engine of economic development;

--institutional pressure to increase overall research funding; and

--student demand for interdisciplinary training.

How can universities best respond to these pressures? This symposium will explore the evolving organization of university research and focus on case studies and best practices for management of the changing research enterprise. The positive aspects of academic disciplines as independent silos will be addressed, along with an exploration of the natural tensions that exist in academic and research administration and the appropriate balance between them. Important trends in university administration of research will be discussed in response to internal and external factors. Best practices in research administration will be presented though case studies and the panelists will comment on the sustainability of the enterprise, as more and more institutions declare their intentions to improve not just research output, but performance relative to each other.

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