“The RGI has generated an unprecedented burst of entrepreneurial creativity on campus.”
– Chancellor Carlos Santiago

The Research Growth Initiative has spurred activity on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, resulting in nearly 300 proposals involving about half of the faculty and staff on campus, officials said.

The initiative, a program that aims to expand the university’s research enterprise by investing in proposals by UWM faculty and staff, allows those faculty and staff members to apply for initial funding, which is awarded by the university.

Chancellor Carlos Santiago announced the initiative in early December. The deadline for the initial submissions was Jan. 23.

“The RGI has generated an unprecedented burst of entrepreneurial creativity on campus,” Santiago said during his plenary address on Thursday, Jan. 26, before a packed crowd of faculty, staff, students and community members.

Abbas Ourmazd, vice chancellor for Research and dean of the Graduate School, said, “I’ve always felt that UWM underestimated its standard and potential.”

“It’s gone remarkably smoothly,” Ourmazd said.

He said that typically UWM has about 130 proposals annually, but with the RGI there were 300 proposals in only a matter of weeks. He also said that would be nearly a 20-fold increase in activity since the proposals came in just a matter of a few weeks instead of spread out over the course of the year.

Those involved in the initiative were operating under a “compressed timeline,” Ourmazd said.

The initiative had tapped into a “dormant” part of UWM’s research enterprise and led to contributions across departmental lines, he said.

Santiago said the best part of the initiative is that it has faculty across different subject areas talking with each other.

“That’s what’s absolutely important,” he said.

There were engineers teaming up with artists, Ourmazd said.

Ourmazd said that it was even a more spectacular feat considering that for the RGI, UWM used a new model for applying for research. The new model, using case managers, differs from the prior model because previously, those who were interested in applying for research had to talk to one person, then another and then yet another.

Now a case manager is assigned to a proposal and that case manager stays with that proposal from start to finish.

The initiative gives those interested in research enterprise a “level playing field,” Ourmazd said.

He said the process now involves having workers go over the proposals, making sure they meet the criteria and are not missing any information.

Then the proposals go to external reviewers.

The proposals would then become a recommended list of investments, and would go to Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Rita Cheng, Santiago and Ourmazd, who would look through the proposals and come up with a “balanced portfolio,” Ourmazd said.

Ourmazd said that three factors are involved in creating that portfolio: quality, originating department and return on investment.

If a proposal is not chosen for the balanced portfolio, the originating authors could resubmit the proposal, Ourmazd said.

Ourmazd said that there were three major lessons that UWM should learn from the initiative proposals.

“We shouldn’t underestimate our own creativity and capabilities,” Ourmazd said.

“The best ideas come when you turn people loose,” rather than inhibit them, he said.

The process showed that there could be great achievement when an “open and objective” process is used, Ourmazd said.

“We’re not afraid of competition,” he said.

Ourmazd said that the potential for growth of the RGI is untapped. He said that, applied to other contexts, the RGI could be expanded to include graduate and undergraduate students. But, he said, such an expansion would be a while off.

“The chancellor has shown the way” for the research arm of the university, Ourmazd said. The chancellor knew there would be the potential for UWM to become a major research university, Ourmazd said.

“He was right.”

> Comments