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OVPR - CARRYING OUT OUR MISSION
Nurturing Excellence
The comprehensive scope of research, scholarship, and creative activity at the University of Michigan makes possible many and varied interdisciplinary projects and programs. The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) plays key roles in nurturing all kinds of interdisciplinary activity on campus.
Incubator Units. OVPR helps new interdisciplinary initiatives find the resources needed to incubate novel approaches to research and scholarship. In recent years, OVPR has assisted in the establishment of the Core Technology Alliance of the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor, Hydrogen Energy Technology Laboratory, UM Substance Abuse Research Center, and Arts of Citizenship.
Research Institutes and Centers. The Office of the Vice President for Research provides oversight to five established, freestanding research units where study crosses disciplinary or school and college boundaries. They include: University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, a focus of automobile, truck, and ship transportation and safety research; Center for Human Growth and Development, which involves natural and social scientists;the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, which conducts interdisciplinary projects that span liberal arts disciplines, the professions, and policy areas; and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) facilty. OVPR shares oversight responsibilities for the Michigan Sea Grant program.
Faculty Project Support. Researchers, scholars and artists apply to OVPR for funding to support special creative opportunities. OVPR programs may provide: seed money at the conceptual stage of projects; bridging support during short-term funding gaps between agency-funded grants; funds to help stage an artistic performance; assistance in prototype R&D for inventions with commercial potential; or cost-sharing with other units to purchase equipment or to support renovation of research facilities. Through the Division of Research Development and Administration, faculty receive many forms of assistance in obtaining project funding from external sources.
Integrating Research and Learning
At the UM, we believe that the intellectual engagement of faculty in new scholarship and research is a vital ingredient in excellent teaching. OVPR supports efforts to further integrate the research and teaching missions. The Office was an early supporter of the heralded Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. This program gives students in their first and second years at the UM a hands-on experience in faculty-led scholarly projects. The Women in Science and Engineering Program, an OPVR unit, also provides important linkages between undergraduate learning and research.
OVPR launched the Year of the Humanities and Arts , a campus-wide initiative for the 1997-98 academic year, which, among other things, is an opportunity for close interaction between students and campus scholars and artists.
Sharing Knowledge and Expertise
OVPR supports the efforts of the faculty to move inventions from the laboratory into the marketplace. Under OVPR supervision, the Office of Technology Transfer assists faculty in filing patents, licensing inventions, and establishing other routes by which the fruits of UM research contribute to the nation's economy.