Presidential Academic Initiatives
Six significant academic initiatives were
established in August 2002. These initiatives were evaluated
by a faculty committee in a competitive process
from a pool of 31 pre-proposals and established by President
Geoffroy. The projects are considered "big impact" research ideas and are intended to respond to and anticipate critical needs
in Iowa and the country, and to enhance Iowa State's stature
among peer land-grant schools. Initial funding of $1,075,000
for five of the initiatives was made possible through reallocation.
The sixth project, the Center for Integrated Animal Genomics,
was funded by the College of Agriculture. Additional funding
for all six initiatives has since been made available by
the Vice President for Research and Economic Development in the form of core support
and start-up
support for new faculty members.
The six initiatives are shown below. For each initiative, a link is shown to
the respective website. Also shown for each initiative is an
article published by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development
as well as the unit's 2004 progress report.
According to President Geoffroy, "The
ideas selected for funding are highly collaborative and involve many researchers
from across campus. They build on Iowa State's strengths and fit the university's
land-grant mission. They also generate significant amounts of external financial
support as they progress." In addition to developing world class research components, each of the initiatives
will strengthen or create graduate academic programs and contribute to ISU's
technology transfer and to economic development in the State. A 2004 report 'Iowa's
Bioscience Pathway for Development', prepared by the Battelle Institute for the
State of Iowa, lists as four of the key six platforms the areas of Bioeconomy,
Advanced Food and Feed, Animal Systems, and Biosecurity - these are exactly the
areas of the three biology-oriented initiatives on campus.
As of 7/1/04, eleven new faculty members have been hired who are working
on the initiatives. Each faculty member is a member of an academic department
and, in some cases, part of his/her salary was contributed by the respective
department and/or college as well as start-up support.
NOTE: Some of the above information was excerpted
from an article written by Anne Krapfl that was published in "Inside
Iowa State" on August 16, 2002.
