Strategy:  Invest in targeted areas of established and emerging excellence and distinction

Point People:  Barry Klein and Ken Burtis

Narrative Summary of Implementation Efforts  

One of our core missions remains to support and help define the emerging areas of excellence and advance efforts to prosper and achieve success.  Along with the great faculty efforts and the inherent collegiality of their efforts, the administrative support groups of Deans and Vice Chancellors/Provosts continue to work very well together in providing appropriate support. 

The campus is making great strides in advancing the implementation of the various FTE research initiatives.  Our goal has been to support the academic missions of the diverse groups that have been formed and to gear much of our development efforts toward garnering additional resources for these efforts.  This goal continues to receive special attention together with our efforts with the deans to support other major, multi-unit research initiatives.  In the past year we have moved to increase the efficiency and integration of support for these research initiatives by consolidating the several Administrative Coordinating Councils into a single Administrative Coordinating Council of Deans (ACCD) that includes all campus constituencies.

UC Davis has become a leader in energy research with more than 60 faculty engaged in research and academic programs through the UC Davis Energy for the Future Initiative.  Another major initiative is the Foods for Health Initiative and the agenda for this research focus has moved forward significantly with a major Comprehensive Campaign initiative underway.  The completion of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science will be a big catalyst too.  The receipt of the NIH Clinical Translational Science Award by the School of Medicine will significantly impact the campus’s ability and reputation in translational science. 

The Office of Research continues to promote collaboration and large-scale, interdisciplinary research projects in general.  Efforts will include expanding possibilities to foster more collaboration in selected research areas and continuing and expanding the joint research seminar series with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which enhances opportunities for UC Davis and Livermore scientists to learn more about potential areas of collaboration.

The office is continuing to work with the "Nano-science and Nano-technology Steering Committee," the "Cyber-security Working Group," and the “Mathematical and Computational Biology Working Group,” consisting of faculty from diverse backgrounds; all groups play crucial roles in coordinating our campus efforts in these fields, and will catalyze more larger-scale proposal efforts.
                       
Advances and Ongoing Programs Consistent with Strategy   

• Hosted the Energy Collaboration Workshop, one in a series of meetings intended to foster research partnerships and included faculty from all UC campuses, the national laboratories and Canadian universities.
• Held regular meetings of the National Laboratory Advisory Board with the purpose of identifying major directions for large-scale, interdisciplinary efforts where national laboratories and the campus could partner.

• Establishment of informal “working group” in Computational and Mathematical Biology, with the goal of identifying new, large-scale thrusts in this area leading to interdisciplinary grant applications and research efforts.  Professor Alan Hastings potentially leading a major center proposal effort in Mathematical Biology.

• Cyber-security Working Group created.

• Enlistment of key faculty members to attend national conferences focusing on emerging areas of research, such as nano-technology and cyber-security.   

• Nano-science and Nano-technology Steering Committee established.  A first major effort led to the submission of a multi-million dollar NIH grant application seeking support for an NIH cancer research center based on the development and utilization of novel nano-technologies.  Currently, the committee investigates possibilities for:
• A Designated Emphases graduate program, and
• A potential small-scale internal seed funding program to foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

• In the areas of Nano-science and Nano-technology, there is the initiation of pioneering research on the possible health effects of certain nanomaterials, such as "nanotubes" (newly approved EPA project by Professors Kent Pinkerton and Ting Guo).  This project could develop into a center.

• Co-established the Stem Cell Internal Advisory Board and manage the Internal Seed Grant program.

• Bi-annual meetings with External Research Advisory Board (ERAB), consisting of senior and high-ranking representatives from industry, national laboratories and the policy sector.

• Became active members of the NAS sponsored University Industry Demonstration Partnership.

• Leadership role or participating strongly in the development of new university-industry engagements — development of relationships including those with Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

• New grants program research ideas/results to patent in progress, developed in conjunction with UCDHS.

• Became a founding member of the NAS University/Industry Demonstration Partnership.

• Organized Research Unit (ORU) Budget Review Committee established to ensure that the core budget best supports emerging areas of research.
• Academic development of the Venture Design Center, as well as the integration of the technology training of our Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers.

• Dialogue with Office of Graduate Studies and faculty, concerning the issue of new graduate education and training efforts, as a result of an increasingly interdisciplinary research landscape (nano-science and -technology, cyber-security, computational biology, computational science and engineering).

• State-wide Energy Efficiency Center established.

• Established the Entrepreneurship Center with Professor Hargadon as Director.

Short Statement of Plans for 2007-08 

• A priority will be to develop more strategic connections with federal and private program managers in key programs at NIH, NSF, DHS and DOD.

• Expand collaborative efforts with national laboratories.

• Host (jointly with Information and Educational Technology) a visit by the president and high-level administrators from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey in August 2007, with the goal of developing research partnerships in 2007-08.

• Review goals and priorities of each ORU and Central Facility to assure continued and expanded commitment and support of excellence.

• Work more closely with ORU and Center directors to develop effective strategies to foster more collaborative efforts with industry.

• Promote more aggressively campus research strengths in areas that are likely to lead to valuable industry-university relationships.

• Expand industry specific relationships.  For example, Amgen, Genentech, Hewlett-Packard, and Pfizer.

Evaluation of Metrics

In addition to the existing Strategic Plan metrics, new metrics will be used:

• Significant support for the homeland security efforts funded by DHS and other federal and private sources.

• Expanded collaborations with the UC Davis Office of Development.

• Increase in outgoing proposals and funded large-scale research efforts.

• Increased recognition of an even more collaborative and multidisciplinary research culture.

• Increase in the number of research efforts done in collaboration with national laboratories and/or industry partners.

Existing metrics:

• Increase in national and international leadership and recognition of UC Davis research programs as reflected in prestigious awards and appointments for faculty and research staff.

• Improvement in the ranking of UC Davis programs in national surveys that are based on research visibility and excellence.

• Growth in the level of extramural funding across all disciplines.

• Enhancement of the number of participants in, and impact of, interdisciplinary initiatives.

• Increase in the dissemination of knowledge through appropriate venues.
  • Timely implementation of promising new initiatives that expand the realm of knowledge.