The goal:

Research excellence and global reputation.

Increase our reputation as a leading global research institution by investing in innovation and growth in our areas of distinction.

Topics on this page

Latest updates

Overview

The University of Rochester is at the cutting edge of critical research, discovery, and creative work. Looking ahead, we aim to make a powerful impact on local and global communities by investing in the areas of basic, applied, and translational research and creative work where we are best positioned to contribute to society in meaningful ways. Now is the ideal time to renew our institutional focus on these areas of distinction.

We will better leverage existing and new industry partnerships as well as our intellectual capital to scale the impact of our research while also seizing upon funding sources from federal and state agencies, the private sector, and foundations to support our efforts. We are committed to building and reinvigorating our research ecosystem as we extend our historical strengths into exciting new areas where we are in a position to lead.

Achievements of this goal

  • Create conditions that promote research addressing current and emerging issues that will affect society as well as the ability to recruit and retain extraordinary scholars who engage in this pursuit.
  • Create at least five new transdisciplinary centers.
  • Add at least 50 new faculty lines across the School of Arts & Sciences, Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, and Eastman School of Music, with additional new lines created in line with academic program and research growth in the Simon Business School, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, and Warner School of Education and Human Development.
  • Add a minimum of 300,000 new square feet of research and teaching space to River and Eastman campuses; 700,000 new square feet of clinical, teaching, and research space on the Medical Campus.
  • Enable an organizational structure that encourages and removes friction and barriers to transdisciplinary collaboration and interaction while being agile and responsive to emerging opportunities and simultaneously ensuring that the disciplines remain strong.
  • Define and support our doctoral graduate programs that are poised to contribute to the next generation of scholars, scientists, and creative leaders.

Objectives and progress

Our objectives and tactics lay out the steps we’re taking to drive progress. Each year, we will review our approach and launch new initiatives to ensure we respond to changing conditions and take advantage of new opportunities. Our core beliefs influence each tactic.

The tactics below are abbreviated. If you have any questions, want to collaborate on tactics, or have feedback, please contact us.

Objective

Grow, retain, and develop faculty in areas of distinction that will serve as the foundation for building our research eminence and reputation

As we endeavor to scale the impact of our research enterprise, we will need additional scholars to join our exceptional academic community. Through strategic cluster hires, we will identify both leading scholars and emerging scholars to direct and support these efforts. In doing so, we will add to our faculty ranks across our areas of distinction and implement support programming to develop all faculty to be exceptional leaders in these fields.

Leaders

  • Nicole Sampson, Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Tactics and progress

  • Invest in funding mechanisms between provost and school leadership for faculty recruiting and hiring including cluster hiring and strategic hires to further priority areas, areas of distinction and transdisciplinary / interdisciplinary efforts.
  • Review national and global faculty awards and distinctions tracking mechanisms to encourage nominations, infrastructure changes (committees, recommendations) and to promote awardees among deans and academic leaders.
  • Recruit for academic excellence, in accordance with state and federal regulations, innovation, relying on values for hiring, inclusive excellence, – provide guidance and advising for // help create process – understand importance and also in alignment with evolving guidelines / hiring aligned to values // advising, guidance, structure / /inform, educate, tools needed to have perspective informing recruitment practices / holistic approach to hiring process and decision-making

Tactics Status
Further develop funding mechanisms between provost and school leadership for faculty recruiting and hiring including cluster hiring and strategic opportunity hires to further priority areas, areas of distinction and transdisciplinary / interdisciplinary efforts. ⬤ Ongoing
Further develop funding mechanisms between provost and school leadership for faculty recruiting and hiring including cluster hiring and strategic opportunity hires to further priority areas, areas of distinction and transdisciplinary / interdisciplinary efforts. ⬤ Complete
Coordinate faculty development resources including recruitment processes that ensure equity in hiring. ⬤ Reset needed

Tactics Status
Create a fund to commence recruitment of a minimum of new faculty lines. ⬤ Ongoing
Provost and Deans identify areas of recruitment for faculty and coordinate cluster hiring and priority growth areas. ⬤ Ongoing
Develop clear, consistent, and resourced retention and faculty development initiatives. ⬤ Ongoing
Coordinate faculty development resources including recruitment processes that ensure equity in hiring. ⬤ Reset needed

Objective

Launch nimble, transdisciplinary centers for scholarly domains where we can be most consequential

Many of the most exciting breakthroughs in knowledge occur at the intersections of scholarly disciplines—both when people from disparate disciplines directly collaborate and even more so when scholars steeped in one discipline apply lessons from other disciplines to reshape their own fields or establish brand-new fields. Part of our hiring strategy will focus on faculty who strengthen the core areas of disciplinary strength in the areas of distinction and those who are committed to pushing the boundaries of their disciplines. We have demonstrated success in establishing transdisciplinary centers that examine and translate research for the greater good of our society and communities, including the Humanities Center, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The University of Rochester has a long and storied history of being at the forefront of the invention—and reinvention—of fields, from positive social science to optics to the biopsychosocial model of medicine. Establishing new mechanisms for colleagues across disciplines to more easily collaborate and learn from one another will allow us to build upon and accelerate this tradition.

We will establish at least five new centers, funded in five-year, renewable increments, based upon the very best ideas of the faculty using a competitive process. Funding will be renewed for centers that show the greatest promise in terms of scholarly eminence, new faculty development, learning across disciplines, and, when appropriate, success in grant funding and associated graduate programs.

Leaders

  • Nicole Sampson, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
  • Stephen Dewhurst, Vice President for Research and Chief Research Officer

Tactics and progress

  • Support faculty proposal development and access to resources encouraging collaboration (forums, community building, awareness of research projects and awards); Focus should be given to support collaborative research and transdisciplinary / interdisciplinary efforts and consideration of federal funding climate.
  • Coordinate and continue implementation of marketing and branding research initiative to build a more competitive and comprehensive marketing campaign for research, centers, and faculty success.
  • Identify and evaluate state and federal grants to coordinate submission efforts among government relations, research office, school and department research leads.

Tactics Status
Establish resources to support faculty proposal development and access to resources encouraging collaboration (forums, community building, awareness of research projects and awards); Focus should be given to support collaborative research and transdisciplinary / interdisciplinary efforts. ⬤ Ongoing
Determine selection criteria and deliverables for phase 2 of transdisciplinary funding and support. ⬤ Complete
Develop marketing and branding research initiative to gather insights to build a more competitive and comprehensive marketing campaign for research, centers, and faculty success. ⬤ Complete
Identify and evaluate state and federal grants to coordinate submission efforts among government relations, research office, school and department research leads. ⬤ Ongoing

Tactics Status
Develop a new, competitive method for selecting transdisciplinary centers. ⬤ Complete
Establish selection criteria for selecting new centers; Create review process and volunteers to vet proposals. ⬤ Complete
Establish resources to support faculty proposal development. ⬤ Progress made
Begin development for marketing research, centers, and faculty success. ⬤ Complete

Objective

Improve research facilities and operations to make research easier to conduct and more effective

As the University prepares to launch new transdisciplinary research programming and initiatives aimed to increase research productivity, we will need to ensure that we have the appropriate infrastructure, operations, and resources to support our ambitious goals and objectives. This will include investing in new research facilities, new operational capabilities, and responsive, efficient policy and administration to ensure pre- and post-award activities that enable and incentivize research productivity. It will also require resourcing a Vice President of Research office that drives strategic engagement, resource allocation, and collaboration across the University.

Leaders

  • Stephen Dewhurst, Vice President for Research and Chief Research Officer
  • Nicole Sampson, Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Tactics and progress

  • Reinforce and support research and strategic partnerships ecosystem connected to the region’s growth as a national and global innovation and technology hub and considers the federal emphasis on industry partnerships.
  • Continued engagement with regional, state, and federal agencies and leverage existing relationship to support development of infrastructure in city and region and support existing programs advancing efforts [Empire AI; CHIPs; ARPA]
  • Develop strategy for increased funding for early-stage start-ups that are based upon university research initiatives and collaborations.
  • Plan and coordinate priorities identified for physical space needs to advance research efforts and support faculty (short- and long-term) as part of master planning process.

Tactics Status
Build ecosystem to support research and strategic partnerships connected to the region’s growth as a national and global innovation and technology hub and considers the federal emphasis on industry partnerships. ⬤ Ongoing
Continued engagement with regional, state, and federal agencies and leverage existing relationship to support development of infrastructure in city and region and support existing programs advancing efforts [Empire AI; CHIPs; ARPA] ⬤ Ongoing
Develop strategy for increased funding to develop University IP based upon university research initiatives and collaborations. ⬤ Reset needed
Clearly define physical space needs to advance research efforts and support faculty (short- and long-term) as part of master planning process. ⬤ Complete

Tactics Status
Commence planning for and resourcing new academic facilities. ⬤ Complete
Develop clear strategy and plan for research commercialization. ⬤ Progress made
Apply for regional, state, federal support for development of infrastructure in city and region for innovation ⬤ Progress made
Develop strategy increased funding for early-stage start-ups ⬤ Reset needed
Develop a comprehensive strategy and proposed approach to increase University F&A rate. ⬤ Complete

Objective

Support and strengthen doctoral programs emerging from our areas of distinction.

Graduate education has long been critical to our research and academic enterprises at the University of Rochester. Specifically, doctoral study and scholarship is essential to the near-term and long-term growth of our research enterprise and mission to make the world ever better through the work of our graduates. Investing in graduate programs, both within disciplines and across disciplines, will support research growth by allowing our faculty to work at greater scale and with improved quality, and strong doctoral programs will further enhance our rich history of developing the careers of the next generation of scholars, scientists, creative leaders, and industry leaders. By investing in these programs, they will also provide critical avenues to enhance our campus’s diversity today while also cultivating faculty and industry pipelines for the future. We will seek to cultivate a rich, inclusive culture of scholarship across our campus.

Leaders

  • Nicole Sampson, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
  • Stephen Dewhurst, Vice President for Research and Chief Research Officer
  • Rick Libby, Interim Vice Provost and University Dean of Graduate Education

Tactics and progress

  • Carry-out continued implementation of updated structures for Doctoral program review to support graduate student education and academic program outcomes and needs.

Tactics Status
Further develop process and structures for Doctoral program review to support graduate student education and academic program outcomes and needs. ⬤ Ongoing

Tactics Status
Review student success and faculty support initiatives in doctoral programs. ⬤ Complete
Conduct a 360-degree view of doctoral student financial support. ⬤ Complete

Measures of success

Definitions of measures of success will be coordinated across the University to create consistency and increase transparency.

  • External grants supporting research
  • Publications, inventions and discipline-specific scholarly works
  • Honorific awards (external to the University)
  • National/International metrics and rankings

news and updates

Better Things

Better Things

The Boundless Possibility blog aims to address questions as fundamental as “What’s happening with the strategic plan?”

Circular logo with a hand pointing upward and the words BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITY.
Circular logo with a hand pointing upward and the words BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITY.

Explore goals and progress

Icon of a human figure wearing a graduation cap with a rolled-up scroll above and to the left, connected by a dotted yellow line.
Blue hand icon with an open palm holding a light blue heart with a cross, surrounded by yellow dashes.
Abstract icon of a human figure and a hexagon with a checkmark, connected by a yellow dashed arc.
Illustration of a computer monitor with a graph, a dollar sign coin, and a gear connected by a dashed semicircular line.

Commitment to Nondiscrimination

In compliance with federal and state requirements, the University does not discriminate –either negatively such as denying opportunity or positively by providing preferences or benefits –based on sex, race, color, national origin, religion, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law (collectively, “protected characteristics”). The strategies, goals, and metrics relating to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in this strategic plan will never be used to illegally disadvantage or provide a benefit to any current or prospective faculty, staff, student, patient, or community member because of that person’s sex, race, national original, religion, or other protected characteristic and no member of the University will be rewarded or penalized based on metrics influenced by protected characteristics. All persons will be welcome regardless of their own protected characteristics and those of their family members.