Research Sector Releases Strategy Playbook
The 91次元’s Office of Research and Creative Scholarship (ORCS) rolled out its Research Strategy Playbook in September — the product of months of campus conversations about how to strengthen UM’s research enterprise.
The document, as its opening paragraph declares, “reflects a shared commitment to advancing research, scholarship, and creative work across disciplines, and to fostering an environment where innovation and discovery thrive.”
The Process
Katherine Swan, Director of Research Development, led the strategy effort with a team from ORCS. It began with discussions with the Provost’s Office to align with UM’s Academic Playbook, but Swan soon realized the team needed broader input.
“We decided we needed to do some campus outreach to really find out what what campus needs looked like and kind of what the research landscape looked like from their perspective,” Swan said.
That outreach included interviews with deans and research center directors, two open forums, and faculty surveys—gathering perspectives from across the university.
Turning Insights Into Action
One key takeaway from the process, says Research Vice President Scott Whittenburg, was the need to improve communication. Even before the plan was complete, he adjusted the role of Naomi DeMarinis, Associate Director of Research Development, to focus on that priority.
“So now we have the open forums and networking breakfasts and so on,” Whittenburg says. “We're much more connected to faculty than we were in the past and that's a good outcome of the planning process.”
The engagement also highlighted the need to refine internal operations, particularly within the Office of Sponsored Programs.
“They're very responsive to changes at the Federal level,” Whittenburg says, “but sometimes those aren't relayed enough to faculty and staff who are doing proposals. So we're trying to find ways to be more responsive to the needs of the clients around campus.”
Another major focus of the Research Playbook is strengthening graduate studies and enrollment—a priority driven in part by new metrics from the American Council on Education (ACE) for R1 (Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity) status.
“When we became R1, we no longer had to have that as a goal at the institution because we're pretty sure we were always going to be R1,” Whittenburg says. “When the metrics got changed by ACE to the amount of funded research and the amount of research doctorates that are produced, suddenly it's not so clear that we're an R1. We want to make sure we maintain ourselves as an R1 institution.”
What's Next?
As this year’s projects take shape, Swan and Whittenburg are already thinking about what comes next. “I really want to stay in touch with campus in a thoughtful way,” Swan says. “I want to make sure we're listening to campus and hearing needs while we think about what to prioritize.”
Whittenburg agrees.
“I'm a strong believer in strategic planning for the university as a whole,” he says. “That plan for the university has to be fed by the individual units such as our sector. I think that the process we've done—to start within the Office of Research and to have our plan work its way up into the university plan—is a good approach for where we're headed.”