Accelerate Innovation and Discovery

Strategic Initiative 5: Accelerate Innovation and Discovery

IIUPUI will enhance its capacity and support for research, scholarship, and creative activity that improves quality of life, accelerates generation of new knowledge, and advances economic development.

Innovation and Discovery Task Force

IUPUI is known for the cutting-edge research its faculty, research scientists, and students undertake, and the ability to translate research into practical applications for the betterment of society.  The academic diversity of the campus promotes a rich environment where inter- and multi-disciplinary innovations and discoveries are forged.  Our strengths in health and life sciences and STEM, augmented by the arts and humanities, social sciences, and other work in professional Schools, reflect a comprehensive and impressive set of intellectual capabilities on campus.  And our inclusive approach to valuing and promoting an array of research, scholarship, and creative activities—in disciplinary research, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and through community-engaged research—provide IUPUI researchers and scholars an opportunity to make significant impacts locally, nationally, and globally. 

The Task Force on Innovation and Discovery is charged with:  (1) identifying current initiatives, best practices, and future trends related to the broadly-defined research enterprise at IUPUI; and (2) making specific recommendations that can better position IUPUI’s ability to conceptualize, support, conduct, translate, and disseminate its wide-ranging innovations and discoveries in appropriate outlets to sustain and achieve prominence.  In conducting its work, the Task Force might consider the following as suggested questions for framing its discussions:

In what ways can IUPUI be a source of national leadership through its innovation and discovery activities?

• What types of research priorities, partnerships, and strategic directions must IUPUI determine in order to scale and sustain research endeavors across campus?
• How do we leverage our strategic location and relationships with IU Bloomington and Purdue West Lafayette to maximize effectiveness of our research efforts?
• How can IUPUI diversify its funding portfolio and sources to attract investment from a broad array of funding entities?
• How do we integrate arts and humanities into applied research and other campus priorities (e.g., health and life sciences)?
• In what ways can we stimulate inter- and multi-disciplinary research teams?
• What are ways in which our structures, policies, and processes need to improve to better support the research enterprise at IUPUI?
• How can we develop and deepen faculty expertise in areas such as emerging fields of study, proposal writing, and managing complex research agendas?
• What are the specific ways our promotion and tenure policies and incentive processes need to change to reflect an increasing emphasis on innovation and discovery?
• In what ways can we grow research commercialization that positively impacts the economic development of the state and beyond?
• How can we develop appropriate capacity for graduate education, Ph.D. programs, and postdoctoral support to enhance the research enterprise?
• In what ways do we need to better integrate and support research experiences for undergraduate students across all disciplines at IUPUI?

Innovation and Discovery Task Force Membership