The Dean’s Office is investing at least $25 million over the next three years to support excellence in research, scholarship, and creative activity in Arts & Sciences. Investments and priorities were identified by an advisory committee of A&S faculty, who led an inclusive and deliberative process driven by input from across the school. Below, you’ll find information about specific investments as well as the process and timeline for advancing the efforts to identify further actions to achieve our vision and measure progress in realizing it over the next 5-7 years.
Phase 1: New and Upgraded Sources of Support for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
We are making a series of strategic investments that will increase the resources, time, and support available to tenured and tenure-track faculty to conduct research, scholarship, and creative activities. Details of each investment will be forthcoming throughout the fall semester.
Significant Baseline Research Funding Increases
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Every tenure-track faculty member in the Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities divisions will receive $4,000 in annual research fund support, and funds may be rolled over for one year to allow support of larger expenses. These investments represent a four-fold increase in annual faculty research support. As a result, previous sources that provided ad hoc, limited funding will be retired (Summer Stipend, AHSS, travel awards). General faculty will continue to be eligible for Professional Development Funds.
New Seed Funding Programs
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Faculty in the Sciences division will have access to dedicated seed fund awards up to $50,000 for one year with potentially greater awards to support for the development of larger, center-style grant proposals. The goal of this seed funding is to enable collection of preliminary data for the submission of grant proposals; collaborative proposals are encouraged. Calls for proposals will be issued twice annually, and a standing group of faculty will review and make recommendations for awards.
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Faculty in the Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities divisions will have access to dedicated seed funds with awards up to $20,000, for individual and team awards. This funding is to facilitate activities expected to result in grant proposal submission; collaborations are encouraged. Support for center-style grants will also be available. Calls for proposals will be issued twice annually, and a standing group of faculty will review and make recommendations for awards.
Dean's Research Fellows
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This is a limited-term program recognizing faculty with innovative, field-transforming research, scholarship and creative activities. It is anticipated that three-cohorts of mid-career faculty will be recognized as Dean’s Research Fellows. Research Fellows receive awards to both reward achievement and provide additional research support.
Enhanced Research Staff Support
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Two Research Development staff will be added in A&S: one in Sciences and one in Arts and Humanities/Social Sciences. This support will include helping faculty locate funding opportunities, developing competitive proposals, facilitating complex proposals and providing templates for elements repeated across proposals.
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New, dedicated Research Communications support will increase our capacity to publicize faculty accomplishments.
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Research communications personnel will also be able to provide graphics and illustration support for grant proposals and publications.
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Next year we plan to increase capacity in the Research Administration team by hiring both a Director of Pre-Award and a Pre-award Research Administrator to enable independence from OSP in the proposal submission process.
Increases in Faculty External Award Supplements
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Tenure-track faculty who receive significant, prestigious external fellowships that cover some, but not all, of their salary during a leave will now be eligible for increased salary supplements.
Increased Flexibility in Teaching Scheduling
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Faculty will be supported in working with their department chairs and associate deans to organize their in-load teaching via stacking and spacing, to create more time for greater focus on research, scholarship and creative activity to be responsive to the unique needs and peak demands of long-term projects. With advance planning and formal approval, courses may be moved between semesters.
Expansion of Graduate Education in the Sciences
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Expand Graduate Education in the Sciences where larger program size is needed to support graduate excellence and facilitate greater discovery; investments may also enhance training grant opportunities.
Sciences Technical Staff
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Salary support will be provided for staff to run and/or maintain shared equipment in combination with departments and users.
Support for Developing and Executing Large-scale Grants
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Workload flexibility will be available in coordination with department leadership to recognize the effort it takes to develop large-scale grant proposals and to initiate programs and centers.
Vivarium Upgrades
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The Gilmer vivarium will be renovated to increase capacity in anticipation of growth in research activity.
See our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information about these strategic investments.
Next steps for learning more about these investments: Phases 2 and 3
Plans developed in response to remaining recommendations included in the Strategic Research Planning committee’s report will be rolled out over the Fall 2024 semester. These include Phase 2: A&S Areas of Excellence, and Phase 3: Cores to Support Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity.
Measuring the impact of these strategic investments
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The impact of these strategic investments will be assessed using metrics identified by faculty as part of the departmental peer review process. These discipline-specific metrics are focused on measuring the external investment and output of research, scholarship, and creative activity.
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The impacts of strategic investment are expected to increase over time; as such, goals and benchmarks will be assessed for the next 5-7 years.
More about the process that got us here
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The advisory committee conducted surveys, focus groups and town halls, benchmarked performance, and held discussions with department chairs and individual faculty members to learn A&S’ strengths and challenges in research, scholarship, and creative activity that might be addressed through strategic investments.
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The committee then recommended a series of specific investments and areas of excellence for support in its report.
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In summer 2024, academic leaders in A&S collaborated to turn recommendations from the advisory committee into a plan for action. This involves a phased approach to (1) implement investments in infrastructure; (2) foster areas of excellence; (3) explore the development of cores to accelerate research, scholarship, and creative activity; and (4) assess the impact of these strategic investments.
How this relates to A&S and University priorities
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The A&S 2030 priorities include the aspiration to garner national and international recognition for research excellence and academic innovation across its divisions.
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The UVA 2030 plan lays out a University goal for research excellence, and A&S wants to position itself to benefit from and contribute to the investments that the University will be making.
Strategic Research Plan Advisory Committee
Advisory Committee
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Fiona Greenland (Sociology) – Co-Chair
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Jack Van Horn (Psychology) – Co-Chair
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Jack Chen (EALC/IHGC)
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David Getsy (Art)
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Andrew Kahrl (History & African American Studies)
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Aynne Kokas (Media Studies & East Asia Center)
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David Parichy (Biology)
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Sally Pusede (Environmental Science)
Quantitative Core
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Dan Gingerich (Politics & Quantitative Collaborative) – Co-Chair
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Sheetal Sekhri (Economics) – Co-Chair
Humanities Core
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Anna Brickhouse (English & American Studies) – Co-Chair
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Ashon Crawley (Religious Studies & African American Studies) – Co-Chair
Arts Core
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Nicole Mitchell Gantt (Music) – Co-Chair
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Mona Kasra (Drama) – Co-Chair
Dean’s Office Leadership
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Laura Galloway (Associate Dean for Research)
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Jessica McDermott (Assistant Director for Academic Administration)