Research at Rice:Some Observations After Four MonthsJim Coleman, Vice Provost for ResearchAdministrator's Forum, January 8, 2008

A VISION FOR THE SECOND CENTURY

1. “We must visibly and substantially increase our commitment to our research mission and raise our research and scholarship profile.

We must especially focus on departments and disciplines in strategically selected areas where we have an opportunity to achieve nationally and internationally recognized levels of distinction and achievement.

Success in this endeavor will require significant investments in and improvements to our research support, physical facilities, and information technology infrastructure.”

Research: The #1 Goal Expressed in the V2C

Research,Creation,

Innovation & ScholarshipCollaborative and

Interdisciplinary

Engage withHouston

UndergraduateExperiences Graduate

and PostdoctoralPrograms

Facilities for Intellectual

Vibrancy

Increase Size And

Quality

Inter-nationalization

Research Connects to All of the Goals of the V2C

Research, Creativity and

the Future of the U.S.

• Some thoughts of a “futurist” regarding the importance of training a creative and research capable workforce

Geoffrey Colvin

How do you measure research?How is Rice doing?

• Externally sponsored research dollars

• Productivity (e.g., papers, books, performances)

• Innovation (e.g., patents, start-ups)

• Recognition (e.g., honors, awards, press)

• Effect on the field (e.g., citations)

• Effect on the world

Research @ Rice

About $20B less than straight-line

75

The Federal Picture for Research Funding is Difficult

Rice’s Research Expenditures Have Been Growing Faster than the Federal Budget

Trend in Research Expenditures (in thousands)

-

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07

Total Research Expenditures Total Research Expenditures minus Subaw ards

42% of Rice’s Research Funding is Brought in by About 6% of the Faculty

Research $/Faculty in

2007*

Total $s in Category*

Proportion of Total $s

Number of Faculty

Proportion of Faculty**

>$1,000,000 $13,327,986 20% 8 2%

$500K - $1M $15,353,111 22% 22 4%

$250K-$500K $23,435,719 35% 73 15%

>$0- $250K $15,791,662 23% 218 45%

$0 $0 0% 166** 34%

* Excludes subawards; ** Calculated based on 487 Full-time tenure-track faculty

Rice’s Total Federal Research is Well Below Peers

Institution 2006 Total Federal Research Expenditures

Stanford $540,069,000

MIT $476,362,000

Washington U. $408,402,000

Harvard $403,458,000

Yale $348,500,000

Carnegie Mellon $185,389,000

Princeton $117,845,000

Rice $ 53,880,000

But, Rice’s Growth in Federal Research is Strong Relative to Peers

Institution 2001-2006

Carnegie Mellon 90.2%

MIT 56.5%

Rice 51.0%

Princeton 49.9 %

Washington U. 43.3%

Stanford 40.5%

Yale 39.0%

Harvard 34.3%

AAU Median 49.5%

Rice's Market Share of Federal Research Seems to be Increasing

0.000%

0.020%

0.040%

0.060%

0.080%

0.100%

0.120%

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Federal Fiscal year

% M

ark

et S

har

e of

Fed

eral

Res

earc

h

Rice is Doing Well Relative to Federal Budget and may be Well Positioned

• 1999-2004– Federal research budget grew by 47% (real dollars)– Rice’s federal research expenditures grew by 46% (about the

same as the federal budget)

• 2004-2006– Federal research budget grew by 2.4%– Rice’s federal research expenditures grew by 17% (about

seven times faster than the federal budget)

• 2006-2011– Federal research will grow slowly, if at all, but with NSF and

DOE (in Physical Sciences) doing relatively well (Very good for Rice!!)

– NIH’s Roadmap requires interdisciplinary approaches (Great opportunities for Rice with Houston’s Medical Center)

– Rice is well positioned

Rice’s Performance at NSF is Strong,

Particularly on a per Faculty Basis

Institution FY 2007-Total FY 2007/faculty*

Princeton $39,554,000 $59,840

MIT $56,239,000 $56,352

Rice $24,574,000 $50,564

Stanford $55,978,000 $48,677

Carnegie Mellon $62,867,000 $43,089

Harvard $35,687,000 $35,687

Yale $22,028,000 $30,598

Washington U. – non medical

$17,901,000 $17,901

AAU Private Med. $25,000,000 $28,500

Rice’s Junior Faculty are Extremely Competitive for the Most Prestigious

Awards

Institution Ranking

MIT 1

Princeton 2

Rice 4

Stanford 5

Yale 6

Duke 7

Carnegie Mellon 10

Washington U. 13

Harvard 15

NSF CAREER Awards

as a Function of Faculty Size (non-

medical)

• Electrical Engineering - #1

• Computer Science - #1

• Computer Engineering - #4

• Bioengineering - #5

• Religious Studies - #5

• Computational Sciences - #10

• Overall - #27 (highest in TX)

Faculty Productivity Rankings: Rice has Several Highly Ranked Programs

Rice is a Very Innovative Place, but With Room to Improve

• Rice Alliance won the award for enterprise creation in 2007 over all the other entrepreneur centers in the U.S.

• Patent filings per research dollar - #1* (*Milken Rankings (2000-2004))

• Invention disclosures per research dollar - #9*

• Start-up companies per research dollar #9*

• But, not much income from licensing yet (revenues of about $1M)

• Industrial sponsored research is 2-10 times below our peer institutions

• Nonetheless, Rice’s culture of innovation is truly exceptional (both Nila and I are amazed)

Rice Faculty’s Research has Helped Start Several Companies that Will Get

Research to People

 

(From Top: Jennifer West, Naomi Halas, Bruce Weisman and Richard Gomer)

Faculty Recognition at Rice Since I Arrived

Small Times Researcher of the Year 

Ching-Hwa Kiang (Physics) developed a technique for stretching a protein and following the path to understand the folding pathways. This work is important because protein misfolding may result in malfunction of biological processes and even disease such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and even cancer. Her breakthrough research in this area earned herthe Small Times Best of Small Tech Researcher of the Year award in 2007.

Ching-Hwa Kiang

Top Innovator in Nanoscience in 2007

 

Ajayan received a 2007 Nano 50™ Award (recognizing innovators that have significantly impacted – or are expected to impact – the state of the art in nanotechnology -and considered the “best of the best”) Ajayan also was recognized by Scientific American Magazine in 2006 as one of the 50 American research leaders in the category of Material Progress for his work in creating super-resilient springs from carbon nanotubes suitable for artificial joints.

Pulickel Ajayan

Esquire’s Best and Brightest in 2007

 

Vicki Colvin, professor of chemistry and director of Rice's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN), is one of just eight women featured on Esquire’s Best and Brightest list in 2007. Nanorust, an arsenic removing nanoparticle she co-discovered in 2006, is featured among Esquire’s "Six Ideas That Will Change the World"

Vicki Colvin

 

Smithsonian Magazine named Michael Wong (Chemical Engineering) to its list of "America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences: 37 Under 36." Michael was recognized for creating a new class of palladium-coated gold nanoparticles that can be used to break down chlorinated compounds like trichloroethene (TCE) in polluted groundwater.

Michael Wong

Smithsonian Top “Innovator in the Arts and Sciences”

Debunking a Major Controversy

April DeConcik (Religious Studies), debunked a “stunning” claim by National Geographic's translation of the Gospel of Judas. According to that translation, Judas was a hero, not a villain, who acted on Jesus' request to betray him. While researching and translating the Coptic Gospel of Judas , she discovered that National Geographic's translators had made some serious errors. Her book received national and international attention.

Other Rice Recognition Since I Arrived

Steve Murdock was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by Senate as Director of the US Census Bureau

Tony Mikos received the 2007 Alpha Chi Sigma Award from  the American Institute of Chemical  Engineers (AIChE) for his outstanding career accomplishments. This one of the highest honors  bestowed by the organization.

Vicki Colvin, Bonnie Bartel, Sidney Burrus and Pulickel Ajayan were elected Fellows of AAAS; Naomi Halas was elected a Fellow of IEEE; Jiangpen Ma was elected a Fellow of the APS

James Dunham is a featured artist on the Grammy-nominated Ying Quartet double CD "Tchaikovsky: Three String Quartets; Souvenir de Florence." 

Undergraduates Receive Recognition for Research Too

Will Rice College senior Grant Belgard earned a 2008 Marshall Scholarship allowing him to study Biochemistry at Oxford. Grant felt that his research experience with Michael Wong on nanomaterials was a key part of his scientific education at Rice. Furthermore, he is part of a team that submitted a patent application on the work

Grant Belgard

But, Rice Faculty Could be Better Recognized

Although Rice Faculty are well recognized and their research is clearly affecting their fields and the world, there is no question that recognition could be stronger. So, Rice may need a more coherent and coordinated strategy for increasing our profile – for example, a better process for nominating faculty for prestigious awards in order to increase recognition

How Does Rice Reach the Research Goal Articulated in the Vision for the 2nd Century?

Research success is an optimization function of three factors:

• Faculty (number and productivity)

• Facilities

• Infrastructure (equipment, support, research climate, etc.)

How Does Rice Reach the Research Goal Articulated in the Vision for the 2nd Century?

Research success is an optimization function of three factors:

• Faculty (number and productivity)

• Facilities

• Infrastructure (equipment, support, etc.)

Rice Needs to Retain and Recruit Faculty, Open New Facilities, and

Improve Infrastructure

Rice Needs Stronger Infrastructure to Grow

Research• Rice faculty suffer from little “economy of scale”, and

hence have an unusually difficult balance of teaching, research and service relative to peer institutions

• Rice faculty have strong sense of institutional ownership that exacerbates the issue above

• Rice is very thin on administrative support for faculty, which further exacerbates the problem

• Issue – there are many faculty who feel they can not take on another grant, or decline to develop proposals, because they simply do not have the time. Can Rice provide support to enable them to take on additional research?

What do the Faculty Say They Need?

• Graduate students and Postdocs (mechanisms and distribution of support; quality, stronger focus of institution)

• Administrative support for:– Finding research funding opportunities (particularly

in Social Sciences and Humanities)– Developing proposals (assistance in preparation,

management of the process, technical writing assistance, etc.)

– Managing awards– Facilitating compliance, particularly right now with

export controls

So, What do the Faculty Say They Need?

• Better coordinated and supported efforts to develop industrial research funding

• Increased support in technology management and technology transfer

• Increased support for shared equipment

• Increased recognition and support of importance of research and scholarship across campus (many have a sense of very mixed messages, or that V2C might only be about growth in research funding)

So, What am I Focusing on Right Now?

• Working with RAG, Kathy Collins, HR, and Deans to develop model for increased support for proposal development and award management

• Working with staff in the Office of Research, Resource Development, Deans, and Institutes to develop new model to facilitate corporate research (draft plan in circulation)

• Developing a strategic plan for technology management

• Working with Linda Thrane and Ray Martinez to improve our process for working with federal agencies and prioritizing funding requests to our federal delegation

So, What am I Focusing on Right Now?

• Spending a great deal of time engaging with Houston’s economic development community

• Working with the Provost, Deans, Rice Faculty and leaders of the TMC to develop the programmatic foci for the Collaborative Research Center

• Faculty Initiative Fund

• Working with Paula Sanders on developing strategies to respond to issues articulated by faculty with respect to graduate student and postdocs

• Developing stronger and regular communication mechanisms with Schools and Institutes

So, what am focusing on right now?

• Working with the Shared Equipment Authority to better understand Rice needs in this area

• Supporting faculty on major Center proposals (e.g., CPINE)

• Beginning to think about how the Research Office can help to more clearly articulate research at Rice, including its importance and centrality to the institution in all disciplines

• Developing Export control process and procedures with Joe Davidson and Provost

Conclusions

• The quality of Rice Faculty and their research has blown me away

• Research has the opportunity to truly define the experience of everyone at Rice in a way that is unique

• Rice is administratively thin in facilitating faculty research, and Rice’s “smallness” actually exacerbates that problem dramatically- Faculty need help

• Attaining Goal #1 of the V2C will require improvement in infrastructure and a more coordinated effort to grow research funding from a diverse array of sponsors