Created in coordination with the Office of Research, the Provost, and the Budget Office, the following memo outlines a modified faculty hiring plan for the Strategic Research Investment Plan. Though this plan will delay some of the planned FY 2019 and 2020 faculty hires, it will provide the research projects with a credible path forward.
FROM: Daniel J. Bernardo, Provost and Executive Vice President
Christopher J. Keane, Vice President for Research
DATE: April 20, 2018
SUBJECT: Status of the Strategic Research Investment Program and Guidance for Faculty Hiring in Years 3-5 (FY 2019-2021)
As you know, the Strategic Research Investment Program (formerly known as the Strategic Reallocation Program) began in FY 2017 with four large research grants, two research project-planning grants, and one Transformational Change Initiative grant aimed at improving student success. Hiring new faculty and staff in strategically important research areas was a critical element of the Strategic Investment initiative. Awards for the six research projects included the recruitment of 24 new faculty members, supported by a mix of award funds and cost sharing commitments. To date, eleven new faculty members have been hired among the projects and we are pleased to report that faculty recruitment plans are overall making good progress. Two projects also have had current WSU faculty appointed as project directors. The university’s budget constraints presented difficulties to the program in Year 2 (FY 2018) and we therefore asked project directors to delay additional proposed hiring until Year 3. Because of this delay, the Strategic Research Investment Program will be extended an additional year and is now projected to conclude in FY 2022.
The faculty positions remaining to be filled within the Strategic Research Investment Program are crucial for the success of these projects as well as for building WSU’s research enterprise necessary for the Drive to 25. Due to the constrained university budget in FY 2019 and 2020 and the costs of the Modernization Initiative, the Office of Research, the Provost, and the Budget Office have worked together to create a modified faculty hiring plan. This modified plan will delay some planned FY 2019 and FY 2020 hires, but will provide the research projects with a credible path forward.
As we near the end of Year 2, most of the projects are well underway. Project members have already submitted 49 proposals of which 14 have been funded, bringing in over $10 million of extramural support. Twenty-four proposals are still pending.
Here is an overview of each project and its path forward, including the approved hiring plan.
Community Health Analytics Initiative (CHAI)
This project began with an interdisciplinary team of existing WSU faculty and successfully recruited one new faculty member by the end of the first year. Nevertheless, the project was terminated after the first quarter of Year 2.
Hires
- Ofer Amran, Assistant Prof., Nutrition Exercise and Physiology, ESFCOM. Expertise – GIS expert; his position has been reassigned to the program in Nutrition.
Future plan
- Remaining funds of about $730,000/year from this program were allocated to the Center for Institutional Research Computing.
Health Equities Research Collaborative (HERC)
HERC has made significant progress towards its objectives. Four budgeted faculty positions and one cost share position for this program have been filled.
Hires
- Pablo Monsivais, Associate Prof., Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, ESFCOM.
Expertise – Social and behavioral epidemiology.
- Justin Denny, Associate Prof., Sociology, CAS.
Expertise – Health and mortality disparities, social determinants of health. - Robert Danielson, Assistant Prof., Educational Psychology, College of Education.
Expertise – Pedagogical practices and learning technologies for improving health education.
- Mina Park, Assistant Prof., Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.
Expertise – Health communication research.
- Anna Zamora-Kapoor, Assistant Research Prof., ESFCOM.
Expertise – Race, ethnicity, and social determinants of health.
Future plan
- The Biopsychology faculty position is the only remaining unfilled hire. We are delaying the position until FY 2021.
Functional Genomics
This project concentrated its efforts on building infrastructure and filling staff positions.
Hires
- Samantha Noll, Assistant Prof., School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, CAS.
Expertise – Ethical and societal issues in biotechnology. - Ryan Driskell, Assistant Prof., School of Molecular Biosciences, CVM. (cost share hire).
Expertise – Tissue regeneration.
Future plan
- FY 2019 – hire one CAHNRS Assistant/Associate Prof. and one CVM Assistant/Associate Prof. with a start date on/after April 1, 2019.
- FY 2020 – hire one CAHNRS Assistant/Associate Prof.
- FY 2021 – hire one CVM Assistant/Associate Prof. and one CAHNRS/Extension specialist.
Stormwater
Dr. John Stark is the Director of this project.
Hires
- Joseph Cook, School of Economic Sciences, CAHNRS.
Expertise – Stormwater and green infrastructure. - Jennifer McIntyre, Assistant Prof., School of the Environment, CAHNRS.
Expertise – Aquatic toxicology. - Courtney Gardner has accepted the position of Microbiogeochemist in VCEA starting in August 2018.
- Deepti Singh has accepted the faculty position of Climatologist in the School of the Environment in Vancouver starting in August 2018.
Future plan
- The Ecosystems Scholar faculty position in Vancouver will be eliminated. The savings will help fund research infrastructure.
Smart Cities
This program began with seeding new projects using budgeted funds in Year 1.
Hires
- None
Future plan
- Effective July 1, 2018, project funding will be transferred to VCEA in support of the Director of the PNNL-WSU Institute for the Advanced Power Grid. The new director of this joint institute will have the expansion of Smart Cities research efforts as part of his or her portfolio.
Nutrition
Dr. John Roll has led this project since the beginning and has been instrumental in creating its vision.
Hires
- N/A
Future plan
- Kevin Murphy recently assumed leadership of the program, which includes three new faculty positions. Although one position is being used for Dr. Murphy as the program lead, CAHNRS will backfill the position vacated by Dr. Murphy thus conserving the number of new hires. The other two positions will be filled as follows:
- Hire one faculty member in FY 2020,
- Hire one faculty member in FY 2021.
Strategic Research Investment Project leaders should submit proposed postings to the Office of Research for approval. Dr. Geeta Dutta, Director of the Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships, will be responsible for providing the required approvals.
Transformational Change Initiative (TCI)
Drs. Denise Yost, Samantha Swindell, and Laura Hill are joint PIs of this project.
Hires
- Michael Cleveland, Associate Prof., Human Development, CAHNRS. Cost share with department.
Expertise – Advanced quantitative methods. - Shenghai Dai, Assistant Prof., Educational Psychology, COE.
Expertise – Psychometrics and statistics/quantitative methods. - Wes Dowd, Associate Prof., Biological Sciences, CAS.
Expertise – Environmental Animal Physiology - Caitlyn Bletscher, Clinical Assistant Prof., Center for Transformational Learning & Leadership, CAHNRS.
Expertise – Communication, nonprofit organizations, and leadership studies.
Future plan
- One additional hire (in English) was budgeted, but that position will not be filled.
The updated program budget is summarized below.]
| FY 2017 | FY 2018 | FY 2019 | FY 2020 | FY 2021 | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Functional Genomics | $1,000,164 | $837,571 | $725,655 | $813,692 | $1,000,024 | $4,377,106 |
| Community Health Analytics Initiative (CHAI) | $354,658 | $161,368 | $35,000 | $551,026 | ||
| Health Disparities | $432,929 | $682,504 | $594,382 | $594,382 | $697,342 | $3,001,539 |
| Green Stormwater | $299,209 | $715,478 | $472,024 | $472,024 | $472,024 | $2,430,759 |
| Nutritional Genomics | $480,000 | $503,600 | $414,229 | $433,767 | $563,904 | $2,395,500 |
| Smarter Cities | $249,494 | $300,000 | $549,494 | |||
| Transfer Smart Cities to VCEA | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | $900,000 | ||
| Sub Total Research | $2,816,454 | $3,200,521 | $2,541,290 | $2,613,865 | $3,033,294 | $14,205,424 |
| Sub Total Research Infrastructure | $1,752,441 | $251,228 | $1,269,345 | $1,321,147 | $1,385,908 | $5,980,069 |
| Sub Total Student Success | $1,051,693 | $1,568,680 | $1,347,048 | $1,347,048 | $1,580,798 | $6,895,267 |
| Transfer to Facilities | $719,000 | $719,000 | ||||
| Modernization Initiative | $379,412 | $260,571 | $842,317 | $717,940 | $0 | $2,200,240 |
| Total | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | $30,000,000 |
Thank you for your support of the Strategic Research Investment Projects. Please contact Geeta Dutta, Christopher Keane, or Daniel Bernardo with any questions you may have.