$100M fund supports new interschool research centers

by David F. Salisbury
Vanderbilt has launched a major internal grant program designed to provide selected faculty researchers with the support required to assume leading roles in a number of important research frontiers. The five-year program is funded by an unusual mechanism, called the Academic Venture Capital Fund, designed to raise more than $100 million for investment in new research initiatives that campus leaders judge have the potential to become programs of national stature.

“Assuming that the money is spent wisely, this is the most significant effort to accelerate the development and enhancement of its academic research programs in the modern history of Vanderbilt,” said one of the program’s architects, Harry R. Jacobson, vice chancellor for health affairs. “I don’t believe there has ever been a time when this amount of new capital has been available for people and programs in a relatively short period.”

This month, Nicholas Z. Zeppos, Provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, announced that the University approved AVCF support for two multi-year “interschool” research initiatives. They join six other multi-year initiatives and a one-year planning grant authorized late last year. Each of these efforts draws together faculty expertise from a number of different departments located in two or more of the University’s colleges and schools.

“We’re very excited by the possibilities that these new initiatives open up for Vanderbilt,” said Zeppos.

For years, researchers have realized that many exciting new discoveries take place at the intersections between different fields of study, such as physics and chemistry or biology and engineering. Supporting such interdisciplinary efforts, particularly during the early formative years, has been difficult for universities like Vanderbilt, which typically are organized into financially distinct colleges and schools. The AVCF provides a mechanism that will allow Vanderbilt to increase its support for such interdisciplinary research that cuts across traditional college and school boundaries.

In the late 1990s, the University Central and Medical Center prepared independent strategic academic plans. Shortly after Gordon Gee took over as Chancellor, however, he created a small cadre — called the Integrated Financial Planning Council — and asked them to find a way to create a fund that the central administration could use to invest in academic programs. Initially, the IFP consisted of Jacobson, then-Provost Thomas Burish and Vice Chancellor for Administration Lauren Brisky. It was later expanded to include Zeppos, then vice chancellor for institutional planning and advancement, and William Spitz, vice chancellor for investments and treasurer.

“We finally developed a very, very aggressive plan with a five-year target of investing more than $100 million in academic programs,” said Jacobson. “Then the big challenge — and the thing that took the most work — was coming up with a source for that money.”

The program is funded through four basic revenue sources: funds from the “quasi-endowment,” unrestricted money in the endowment that comes primarily from operating budget surpluses from prior years that have been invested profitably; the IDS tax, a general revenue tax that the central administration levies across the university; focused philanthropy; and, a portion of the university’s future earnings from its technology transfer program.

To help decide how the money will be invested, University officials created two strategic academic planning groups (SAPGs), one in the Medical Center and one on the central campus, and charged them with reviewing and ranking proposals that are submitted in response to an annual solicitation. Once the SAPGs have done their work, they turn the proposals and their recommendations over to the IFP Council, now chaired by Zeppos. The council then has the option of accepting the SAPGs’ recommendations as received or carrying out additional evaluations, as needed. Proposals that clear all the hurdles are recommended to the Chancellor for funding.

In addition to setting up a rigorous selection process, another critical element in designing the new program was coming up with the criteria that proposals must meet to be considered for AVCF support. Officials came up with a list of concrete criteria to use as “guidelines.” That is, proposals are expected to meet most but not necessarily all of the criteria.

“The criteria dominantly focus on two issues,” said Jacobson. “The proposals need to be transformative: They should have the potential for creating a program here at Vanderbilt with real national stature. Proposals also should have the ability to become largely self-supporting either through third-party research funding, support by schools and colleges, or through philanthropy.”

The Vanderbilt Board of Trust’s Executive Committee approved the formation of the AVCF in February 2001, and it was granted spending authority last fall.

Jacobson stresses that the fund’s procedures are not set in concrete: “This program is going to undergo a continuous quality improvement analysis. We’re going to look at it and get input from faculty and others regarding how well it is working. Hopefully, we’ve gotten it mostly right, but we fully understand that there may be some things that need to be changed and we will be doing that.”

For more information, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/SponsoredResearch/DiscoveryResearch.html and http://medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/vumcresearch/

Criteria by which proposals for AVCF support are judged

1. The proposed effort is in accord with Chancellor Gee’s five basic goals for academic excellence and strategic growth:
   
   - We must renew our commitment to the undergraduate experience at Vanderbilt.
   
   - We must reinvent graduate education at Vanderbilt.
   
   - We must re-integrate professional education with the intellectual life of the University.
   
   - We must re-examine and restructure University economic models.
   
   - We must renew Vanderbilt’s covenant with the community.
3. The proposed effort will help advance Vanderbilt University to the front rank of American universities. To offer only two examples, this could be accomplished by bringing together existing institutional strengths in a new and distinctive way, or by proposing a creative way to strengthen a critical area that limits Vanderbilt’s ability to move forward.
4. The proposed effort enhances the learning environment and opportunities for undergraduate, professional and graduate students, and recognizes the need to recruit and retain an intellectually, racially and culturally diverse campus community.
5. The proposed effort will require a significant investment in graduate education, and, if successful, will improve the national ranking of one or more graduate programs.
6. The proposed effort involves a broad range of faculty rather than a few individuals and will foster greater collaboration among the schools.
7. The proposed effort will strengthen disciplinary integrity and expand the interdisciplinary range of departments.
8. The faculty leadership is already in place.
9. The proposed investment will strengthen the core disciplines.
10. The proposed effort is bold, requiring significant intellectual and financial investment, with anticipated gains commensurate with the magnitude of the investment.
11. The proposed effort shows clear promise for generating the funding needed to sustain itself after the initial period of AVCF support (of no more than five years).

Posted 10/14/02 at 10 a.m