Aim: Establish a culture at Nebraska committed to increasing the impact of research and creative activity
We do big things. The University of Nebraska is the state’s flagship research institution. Conducting novel and impactful research that generates new knowledge, solves real-world problems locally and globally, and enhances lives through research, creative activity, and transformational innovations is among the most fundamental purposes of the institution. It is imperative that research and creative activity be central to every university action, interaction, and decision; that sizable resources be committed to bolstering research and creative activity; and that students, faculty and staff are involved and stakeholders meaningfully engaged in research and creative activities.
The research and creative activity enterprise at Nebraska engages in practices where every person and every interaction contributes to the generation and proliferation of new knowledge, understanding, and perspectives.
Strategies:
- Align all aspects of academic, student, and business affairs in support of research, scholarship, and creative activity
- Recruit and develop diverse world-class researchers, scholars, artists, and staff and provide them with strong institutional and community support
- Build new mechanisms to reward and retain highly successful faculty
- Recruit, develop, and compensate a competitive and highly competent community of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows
- Ensure dedicated, long-term research or creative activity experiences for students
- Revise UNL apportionment guidelines and staff position descriptions and evaluation criteria to include engagement
- Apply for international and national awards and fellowships for faculty and students
- Communicate broadly about the breadth and social impact of research and creative activity
Expectations:
- Increased number and diversity of tenured and tenure-leading faculty with a majority research apportionment
- Increased number, size, and scope of extramural proposal submissions
- Increased revenues for research and creative activity through a diverse funding portfolio
- Increased number and impact of scholarly journal articles and creative works
- Increased number, quality, and compensation of graduate students and post- doctoral fellows
- Increased number of students with long-term research or creative activity experiences
- Improved research ranking among Big 10/peer institutions
- Increased number of national/international awards and citations of faculty and students
Targets:
- Achieve $450M in annual research expenditures including at least $30M from the private sector and $10M in licensing income
- Increase the number of faculty participating in extramurally-funded research, scholarship, and creative activity by 5% annually on a three-year rolling average
- Increase the number of faculty apportioned to do research, scholarship, and creative activity by 5% annually on a three-year rolling average
- Increase the number of faculty receiving external honors and awards by 10% annually on a three-year rolling average
- Increase graduate (master’s and doctoral) degrees awarded by 5% per year