Given ongoing threats to federal research funds and continued declines in state funding, CU must ensure that its research enterprise operates at the highest level of efficiency and must also consider diversified funding sources and partners. To accomplish this, it is necessary to create a unique value proposition.  This effort, at its core, is to support faculty, university and academic leadership.  Our goals are to:

  • Create a culture of alliance, collaboration, innovation, results and faculty support.
  • Enhance our ability to attract, support, motivate and retain the best researchers
  • Provide an efficient administration and a robust, flexible and compliant infrastructure.
  • Protect & grow overall research funding by sourcing as broadly as possible
  • Develop an overall strategic research vision

Our Plan

To achieve this vision, in partnership with outside consultants, the Office for Strategic Research Initiatives will help to create an empowering research environment across three dimensions.  We will:

  1. Support faculty to find and win funding for basic research from traditional and non-traditional sources
  2. Encourage and support faculty to seek partnerships with industry and other external sources to pursue translational research
  3. Provide faculty inventors the connections and regulatory support to commercialize their research

First Steps

In order to develop and implement recommendations to transform our current infrastructure, we are developing Pathfinder Projects, in collaboration with faculty, staff and students. Pathfinder Projects will target an immediate business problem, elucidate and solve infrastructure challenges, provide alternative approaches and solutions, and inform the overall strategic research vision.(Pathfinder Project Link). Pathfinder Projects will achieve a tangible, measurable outcome, test components of a new research blueprint, and provide learning experiences applicable to future research projects. New Pathfinder Projects will be added as our project proceeds.

Please contact us for more information.