Strategic Plan for Research

2018 Strategic Plan for Research

Prepared in response to House Bill 51, 81st Texas Legislature for the

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board by the

Office of the President The University of Texas at Austin Main 400, G3400 Austin, TX 78712

march 1, 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vision Statement 1

Vision and Goals 1 Institutional Characteristics 2

Plan to Increase Research Funding and Productivity 2

External Funding 3 Research Priorities 5 Allocation of Resources 9 Student Participation 11

Plan to Improve Master’s Degree‐Level Education 14

Summary of Existing Programs 14 Areas of Emphasis for New Programs 15

Plan for Existing Doctoral Programs 15

Summary of Existing Programs 16 Quality Control 16 Quality Enhancement 17 Comparisons with National Peers 18

Plan for New Doctoral Programs 19

Areas of Emphasis 19 Assessment 20 Regional Impact 20

Plan for Faculty and Student Development 21

Faculty Research 21 Faculty Recognition 23 Collaborations and Partnerships 26 New Faculty 27 Student Awards 27 Student Diversity 28 Undergraduate Research 30

Other Resources 31

Research Facilities 31 Library Resources 33 Graduate Student Support 35

Vision Statement

The mission of The University of Texas at Austin is to achieve excellence in the interrelated areas of undergraduate education, graduate education, research, and public service. The university provides superior and comprehensive educational opportunities at the baccalaureate through doctoral and special professional educational levels.

The university contributes to the advancement of society through research, creative activity, scholarly inquiry and the development and dissemination of new knowledge, including the commercialization of university discoveries. The university preserves and promotes the arts, benefits the state’s economy, serves the citizens through public programs, and provides other public service.

The core purpose of the university is to transform lives for the benefit of society. The core values of the university are:

 Learning — A caring community, all of us students, helping one another grow.  Discovery — Expanding knowledge and human understanding.  Freedom — To seek the truth and express it.  Leadership — The will to excel with integrity and the spirit that nothing is impossible.  Individual Opportunity — Many options, diverse people and ideas, one university.  Responsibility — To serve as a catalyst for positive change in Texas and beyond.

Vision and Goals

Public expectations for higher education, and American research universities in particular, have changed dramatically since The University of Texas at Austin’s founding more than 130 years ago. Today, Texas is widely recognized as one of the world’s most accomplished public research universities, due to the strength of its undergraduate and graduate programs; the power of the research, discoveries, and innovations it has originated; and its ability to transform lives by expanding educational, economic, and cultural opportunities for its students, the Greater Austin community, the state of Texas, and the United States.

UT Austin fulfills its public responsibility as a university of the first class through demonstrated commitments to excellence and continual innovation across four general domains:

 Unlocking students’ potential through education.  Advancing knowledge, understanding, and creativity.  Revolutionizing personal and public health.  Benefitting society.

The breadth of The University of Texas at Austin's educational and research activities and its public responsibility implies that the university must advance excellence across multiple domains to provide the future leadership and competitiveness of the nation, the state, and the university. As a starting point for planning and strategy development, President Fenves has identified three general goals and associated strategic priorities for the university:

 Educating future leaders for our state, our nation, and our world.

 Accelerating the benefits of research to society.  Transforming health and healthcare.

Institutional Characteristics1

In Fall 2017, the university enrolled 51,525 students (40,492 undergraduate; 5,117 master’s; 4,399 doctoral; 928 in law; 100 in medicine; and 489 in pharmacy) in 156 baccalaureate, 139 master’s, 98 doctoral, and four professional degree programs. During AY 2016‐17, the university conferred 9,897 baccalaureate, 2,934 master’s, and 833 doctoral degrees. There were also 462 doctoral degrees conferred that qualify recipients for entry into professional practice (e.g. JD, MD, etc.) for a total of 14,126 degrees granted.

The university has more than 40 graduate programs among the top 10 in the nation and four programs ranked #1, according to U.S. News & World Report (2018 "Best Graduate Schools"). It has top 10 programs in 12 of its colleges and schools, including such disciplines as business, communication, education, engineering, Earth sciences, humanities, information, law, natural sciences, pharmacy, social work, and the social sciences.

The university is ranked #32 in Best Global Universities by U.S. News (2016), #10 in the Nature Index for Scientific Research (2017), #30 by the Center for World University Rankings (2017), and #49 in the World University Rankings by Times Higher Education (2017‐18).

UT Austin is a “Research University” as defined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). In the current Carnegie Classification system, UT Austin is classified under “Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity.” In FY 2017, the university had $615.2 million in research expenditures.

This 2018 Strategic Plan for Research (“The Plan”) is a description of how the university is enhancing its research activities and graduate and undergraduate programs to better serve the state and nation. The Plan does not represent a change in the university’s mission. Rather, it reflects a continuing commitment to contribute at an ever‐increasing level of excellence to the “advancement of society through research, creative activity, scholarly inquiry and the development and dissemination of new knowledge, including the commercialization of university discoveries.”

Plan to Increase Research Funding and Productivity

The plan to increase research funding and productivity includes information on external funding (targets, progress, and peer comparisons), research priorities (targeted priorities and focus of efforts), allocation of resources (budget needed and allocation), and student participation (in research at graduate and undergraduate levels). While targets may be established for research funding, achieving those targets is dependent on the number of faculty conducting research and the productivity of those faculty measured as research expenditures per faculty member. A planning horizon to 2025 is used herein for planning purposes.

1 See www.utexas.edu/about/facts‐and‐figures.

External Funding

Table 1 shows actual research expenditures for FY 2013 through FY 2017 and target expenditures for FY 2020 and FY 2025. FY 2014 expenditures fell below the previous fiscal year’s expenditures as a result of a dip in federal awards due to the 2013 federal sequestration, an unexpected decrease felt by all public research institutions. UT Austin is recovering slowly, but steadily, from the 2013 sequestration. Federal research expenditures represent approximately 60 percent of total research expenditures. By comparison, the university ranked 8th out of 12 public peer institutions in terms of federal research expenditures in FY 2016. However, only four of those 12 institutions do not have medical schools. (The Dell Medical School did not open to its inaugural class until FY 2017). Among those four, the university is ranked first.

Table 1. Actual and Target Research Expenditures, UT Austin ($M)

Actual Actual Actual Actual Actual Target Target FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2020 FY 2025 Total $595.1 $550.3 $615.8 $583.5 $615.2 $655.0 $755.0 Federal $372.6 $332.7 $346.2 $357.2 $396.4 $436.2 $536.2

The University will monitor its monetary progress toward achieving the institutional financial targets through its Office of Sponsored Projects and Office of Industry Engagement (units within the Office of the Vice President for Research). In addition, the number of research proposals submitted for external funding and the number of external research grant awards received will continue to be tracked. For FY 2016, the university received notice of award for approximately 39 percent of research proposals submitted to all funding sources.

Faculty Productivity

Maximizing external funding relies on a productive and well supported faculty. Faculty productivity across campus may be enhanced in a number of ways: (1) involve a larger portion of the faculty in externally and internally funded research; (2) faculty currently conducting externally funded research may be able to increase the amount of funding they receive or move into research areas with funding; (3) take advantage of increases in external and internal funding sources in areas of faculty expertise; (4) conduct research more efficiently; (5) involve more graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to increase research capacity; (6) secure more modern equipment and thereby also increase research capacity; (7) secure new or renovated laboratory space to increase research capacity; (8) hire professionals who can help faculty prepare proposals; among other ways. Elaboration on some of these points follows.

University research is conducted by T/TT faculty, as well as other research staff, and it should also be noted that not all faculty conduct externally funded research. In FY 2017, approximately 48 percent of T/TT faculty had external research funding. While this proportion is expected to increase to more than 50 percent by FY 2020, as faculty productivity continues to increase, the research awards obtained and research funding expended are spread over the entirety of T/TT faculty. The productivity of those faculty with external research funding is enhanced with the participation of postdoctoral fellows and other research staff.

Postdoctoral fellows typically assist T/TT faculty in supervising master’s and doctoral students, as well as conducting research. Also, postdoctoral positions are opportunities for new doctoral graduates to obtain valuable experience in research and teaching; increasingly, new tenure‐track faculty are expected to have some postdoctoral experience. In FY 2017, there were 646 postdoctoral fellows at the university.

A much larger group of individuals supporting faculty research are the master’s and doctoral graduate students who are seeking advanced degrees in which research is a major component. Faculty research is also supported by undergraduates who wish to obtain experience working in a research laboratory. It is not uncommon at any given time for a faculty member to be supervising five to 10 graduate students in a modest research laboratory. Larger research laboratories will involve postdoctoral fellows to expand the capacity of graduate student (and undergraduates, if involved) supervision and to assist with the preparation of proposals to secure research awards as well as to conduct the research that emanates from these awards. As previously noted, approximately 39 percent of research proposals to funding sources are ultimately supported. Thus, on average, between two and three proposals must be prepared and submitted for each proposal that is funded. While T/TT faculty most often write these proposals, they can be facilitated greatly with the help of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and where available, the help of professional proposal preparers.

Two assumptions are made regarding external funding. First, federal funding will continue and will in fact increase to support critical national research needs in the areas of energy and health in particular, and many other areas in which university faculty have expertise and strong research programs. State funding of research will not change significantly and will remain small compared to federal support; corporate support will remain small, as well. Second, health‐related research will grow as the Dell Medical School (DMS) grows and develops.

The primary target for research funding is the federal government, mainly the following agencies (with the first two being most significant):

 National Institutes of Health  National Science Foundation  Department of Energy  Department of Education  Department of Defense  Department of the Interior  National Aeronautics and Space Administration  National Endowment for the Humanities

Historically, approximately 60 percent of the university’s sponsored research annual expenditures have been derived from the federal government with 40 percent emanating from the state, private sector, foundations, and institutional sources. For FY 2017, funding from federal sources accounted for 64.4 percent with 35.6 percent coming from state sources, industry, foundations, non‐profits, and other sources. This percentage breakdown reflects the cumulative expectations of the various schools and colleges of the university. The breakdown is expected to continue into future years as the prestige of the faculty continues to attract more funding and as the medical‐ and health‐related portion of university research continues to increase.

University faculty productivity, measured as total annual research expenditures divided by T/TT faculty FTE, is substantial, as shown in Table 2. In FY 2013, research expenditures were $326,308 per T/TT faculty FTE. Four years later that figure had increased to $352,111, an almost eight percent increase. The anticipated increase in productivity from $318,800 per T/TT faculty FTE in FY 2010 to more than $430,000 per T/TT faculty FTE in FY 2025 is almost 35 percent. Table 2. T/TT Faculty Productivity (Annual Research Expenditures per T/TT Faculty FTE)

Actual Actual Actual Actual Target Target FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2020 FY 2025

Expenditures $550.3M $615.8M $583.5M $615.2M $655.0M $755.0M T/TT Faculty 1,810.45 1,805.39 1,767.07 1,747.16 1,747.16 1,747.16 Productivity $303,961 $341,110 $330,235 $352,112 $374,894 $432,130 Source: Office of Institutional Reporting, Research, and Information Systems (IRRIS), UT Austin

While consistent with the university’s mission, each college or school has its own mission, has different resources, offers a different educational focus, and will have a different research funding target and planned approach for achieving the target. Apart from the institutional and college/school financial targets, there is a general desire for the colleges and schools conducting the largest amount of research to be ranked among the top five comparable entities nationally.

Research Priorities

Each college and school determines its own research priorities, over time, consistent with the university’s mission and vision. Even so, the colleges and schools share the objective of producing high‐ quality, innovative, impactful, and useful research for society. Whereas some colleges and schools, such as the College of Fine Arts, which is heavily performance oriented, do not codify their research priorities, other schools and colleges specify their research priorities in order to guide faculty recruiting, focus the research efforts of current faculty members, and capture synergies that may emerge. Examples of college and school research priorities include the following:

Cockrell School of Engineering

• Reinventing human health through engineering • Leading the revolution in manufacturing • Innovating for energy, environment, and sustainability • Transforming intelligent systems and man‐machine symbiosis

College of Natural Sciences

• Quantum information • Biomedical and biophysical sciences • Computational and data sciences • Neuroscience • Materials science associated with energy • Learning and memory • Addiction research • Drug development

• Human genetics/genomics • Nanomaterials • Systems and computational biology

College of Pharmacy

• Chemical biology/drug discovery • Health outcomes, economic, and equity research • Infectious disease • Molecular mechanisms of cancer • Neuropharmacology and addiction • Environmental and developmental mechanisms of health and disease • Translational research in drug delivery

Dell Medical School

• Brain health • Pediatric basic/preclinical • Decision support/preterm birth • Cancer • Imaging technology • Health equity/community • Asthma

McCombs School of Business

• Analytics • Entrepreneurship and innovation • Leadership and ethics

School of Information

• Health informatics • Data science • Digital records management • Human‐computer interaction and user experience design • Intelligence and Security

Although research priorities vary among colleges and schools, there are common research priorities across the university and, where appropriate and feasible, the university fosters interdisciplinary research across colleges and schools to facilitate the achievement of interdisciplinary research goals.

One example is energy. Energy is a natural focus of the university given the importance of petroleum and gas to the economy of the state. The Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering is the number one department of petroleum engineering in the country. The Jackson School of Geosciences has world‐class energy researchers. In addition to being a research priority in the Cockrell School of Engineering and the Jackson School, it is also a priority in the McCombs School of Business, the College of Natural Sciences, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the Law School, and

6 the School of Architecture. This emphasis on energy in these seven colleges and schools is given institution‐wide focus by the Energy Institute, an organized research unit (ORU) reporting to the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. Finally, there are numerous institutes and centers focused on a variety of aspects of energy in the university’s colleges and schools. Examples include:

 Center for Energy and Environmental Resources (CEER)  Energy Management and Innovation Center  Gulf Coast Carbon Center  Center for Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT)  Center for Energy Economics  Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy (CIEEP)  Center for Electromechanics  Center for Electrochemistry  Center for Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering (CPGE)  Center for Sustainable Development (CSD)  Various consortia, such as Pecan Street and the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC)

Similarly, health‐related research priorities exist in several colleges and schools, including the Cockrell School of Engineering, the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Pharmacy, the McCombs School of Business, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the School of Nursing, the Moody College of Communication, the College of Education, and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work.

These schools and colleges are already well‐positioned for research supporting or collaborating with the Dell Medical School (DMS). Other university units that will be supportive of health‐related research include:

 Applied Research Laboratories  Texas Advanced Computing Center  Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences  Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center  Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology  Dell Pediatric Research Institute  Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT) – a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center;  Institute for Neuroscience

Creating hubs of knowledge that leverage campus‐wide expertise should simultaneously lead to major research advances, as well as increased research funding.

A new addition to the university is the Dell Medical School (DMS). DMS began in 2014, having an initial priority of opening the doors for medical students, with the first class entering July 2016, and a second priority of opening the clinics, which occurred in October 2017. In FY 2017, DMS had research expenditures of $6.2 million. This was anticipated as total research expenditures would not be equivalent to those of a mature medical school. DMS expects to research expenditures of $12 to $23 million in FY 2020 and $50 to $70 million in FY 2025.

Bridging Barriers

The program name “Bridging Barriers” refers to the bridging of barriers between fundamental knowledge and real‐world problems by connecting disciplines, techniques, and ways of thinking across campus. President Fenves introduced Bridging Barriers in his 2016 State of the University address. This campus‐wide, research grand challenges initiative brings together experts from across UT Austin to address pressing problems facing Texas, the nation, and beyond.

The grand challenges that are the focus of Bridging Barriers are imagined, designed, and driven by university faculty and researchers. The first of these grand challenges, Planet Texas 2050, was launched in January 2018 and focuses on more accurately predicting future scenarios for Texas, given the dual stressors of climate extremes and rapid urbanization. Planet Texas 2050 involves a team of more than 120 faculty and staff researchers, who are combining their expertise to discover critical interactions between environmental and human systems and to develop strategies to improve the resilience of these systems to climate extremes and population growth. A new Bridging Barriers grand challenge will be launched each year for the next two to four years. Each grand challenge includes a multi‐year investment from the university and substantial support from both the Office of the Vice President for Research and the University Development Office to secure external funding.

Intellectual Property and Commercialization

One measure of the quality and relevance of university‐based research is the extent to which the research can be successfully commercialized to benefit society. The university’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) has the dual mission of protecting university intellectual property emanating from research conducted by its faculty and staff and the commercialization of that research when appropriate. The following metrics attest to the accomplishment of this mission. In the past five years, OTC has:

 Facilitated the spinout of 36 startup companies from the university including one resultant $50 million initial public offering (IPO);  Generated $91.1 million in licensing and royalty revenue for the university (in FY 2017, it generated $18.9 million in revenue);  Managed the issuance of 495 patents (298 domestic, 197 foreign); and  Executed 376 license and option agreements based on the research.

Two examples that illustrate the social and economic benefits of commercializing the research conducted by university researchers involve therapeutic enzymes for oncology and, separately, production optimization software for the oil and gas industry.

 The biotechnology invention consists of three engineered and optimized drug candidates targeting the degradation of the amino acids Arginine, Cysteine/Cystine, and Methionine. Treatment with the drugs will kill different tumor types and the lead product candidate is currently being studied in two ongoing Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with advanced solid tumors and acute myeloid leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome (AML/MDS). This invention was licensed to a startup formed in 2013 to move the technology forward and completed its IPO in 2016.

 The energy invention is a novel software that combines data‐driven analytics with physical reservoir engineering principles to increase profitability of oil recovery projects by identifying inefficiencies in operations for conventional and unconventional applications. It also has been licensed to a startup company that was acquired in 2016 by a larger company focused on solving some of the most challenging problems related to the development, management, restoration, and protection of natural resources, with the university receiving royalties.

Allocation of Resources

In tier‐one research institutions, the quality of the faculty, the specialized knowledge they teach, and the new knowledge they create determine the value or prestige of the institution. This value is measured in terms of the quality of the graduates the university produces through its educational programs (some of whom become new faculty members in higher education) and the quality of the research conducted, results generated, and the value of that research to the health and welfare of the region, state, country, and indeed the world. For this value to be fully realized, the faculty must be supported by a highly committed and qualified staff, modern facilities, very talented undergraduate and graduate students, and a highly efficient and functional administrative organization. Thus, the allocation of resources is focused heavily on the faculty, staff, and students; on administrative support; and on facilities.

As stated in the vision and goals of the Office of the President:

The breadth of The University of Texas at Austin's educational and research activities and its public responsibility implies that the University must advance excellence across multiple domains to provide the future leadership and competitiveness of the nation, the state, and the university.

Examples of research‐related goals include:

 Revolutionizing personal and public health; and  Advancing innovation in medical discoveries, health technology, health policy design, and multi‐ professional models of care.

During the next few years, the university will likely continue to experience budget shortfalls; the funding that will enable the university to continue to move ahead must come from reallocation. Annually, the deans engage in the process of reviewing budgets and priorities within the colleges, schools, and departments and making decisions about how best to allocate scarce resources. Allocation of resources at the college and school level eventually reflects these priorities. The same process is employed at the vice presidential level, as well.

Based on the historical relationship between research funds awarded, research expenditures, ancillary research‐support funding required, and faculty productivity, the university will need to invest in additional research facilities, faculty, and infrastructure in order to meet its target of $755 million in research expenditures by FY 2025. In addition, the university will need to hire both experienced grant‐ getting senior faculty members and resourceful junior faculty members, while also recruiting outstanding graduate students to achieve its targeted goals.

Toward this end, the university is currently conserving and strategically allocating any incremental resources to be able to aggressively attract and retain the most productive researchers. In September

2017, the president announced the next phase of the faculty investment initiative, which will consist of two parts. The first is a multi‐year effort to focus on salary competitiveness, after years of falling behind other top‐ranked universities. The second will be to ensure that as UT replaces faculty, compensation and facilities will allow the institution to compete for the best talent.

The president recently increased the permanent funding — drawn in part from new recurring AUF funding — for recruitment and retention. This funding will enable the institution to upgrade existing faculty lines and offer competitive compensation to existing and replacement faculty. Increases in the number of research staff members and research‐support resources will need to occur commensurately as the university seeks to grow the research enterprise.

Until recent years, funds had been invested in hiring new faculty over and above replacement faculty. For eight years starting in AY 2000‐01, some 30 new faculty positions had been funded each year. This initiative has been suspended because funding for it has become limited.

For any new faculty member to be accommodated on campus, additional support services and infrastructure are needed. (A description of facilities under construction or about to be under construction is provided later in this plan.) These facilities will provide space for current needs, as well as those anticipated for some time in the future. Four buildings completed in the last three years cost $711.9 million whereas one building currently under construction has an estimated cost of $160 million.

In addition to new construction, renovation of existing facilities is ongoing. Recently completed, underway, or planned renovations total $906.7 million. In addition, UT Austin hires approximately 30 STEM faculty per year; start‐up costs alone are in excess of $30 million.

Campus‐wide, interdisciplinary research centers of excellence offer a mechanism for coordinating external fundraising and fostering joint programmatic research. To the extent that such centers can utilize the same laboratories or share other physical facilities and centralized administrative support is available, resources also may be conserved. Likewise, changes in the research infrastructure should support efforts to achieve targeted goals.

Despite the diversity of the colleges and schools, there are several recurring research‐related themes across the university. Virtually all colleges and schools:

 Cite the need for their faculty members to broaden their research by collaborating more frequently and working across disciplines, not only within their colleges and schools, but with colleagues across the university, as well as outside the university;  Seek ways to have their faculty members become more research‐entrepreneurial (in both an academic and nonacademic sense);  Have a desire to internationalize research efforts at the university;  Are concerned about budgetary constraints as they attempt to hire new faculty members who are research‐active and who will strive to obtain research support from beyond the university;  Utilize different strategies regarding the rank of faculty members being recruited given different needs to replace retiring faculty members or provide leadership and fundraising capabilities of new hires;  Have concerns regarding sufficient laboratory space available to conduct high‐quality research at the university;

 Are studying ways to focus the research interests of faculty members to fewer domains wherein stronger competencies can be effectively and efficiently leveraged with some developing specific strategies and tactics to reduce the number of domain areas in which faculty members conduct research;  Have mechanisms for integrating graduate and undergraduate students into the process of research, such as pairing students and faculty member researchers either formally through advising programs or informally through mentoring programs or through pairing undergraduate and graduate students in ways that are beneficial to both parties;  Possess programs to reward faculty members and students for research accomplishments, acknowledging that the magnitude and nature of the rewards differ substantially across colleges and schools, with some units offering fellowships whereas others use monetary awards or release time;  Are committed to recruiting students and faculty members who are likely to have successful research careers, taking into account the need for diversity in both cohorts;  Have or are developing plans to actively promote and increase the amount of high quality and impactful research conducted by faculty members and especially improve the research productivity of senior faculty members; and  Use external information (e.g., citation reports, media rankings) consistently in self‐evaluations, determining research strategies, and allocating resources.

Student Participation

Student participation in research activities is imperative if the university is to achieve its targeted goals for research. Virtually every college and school has devised programs to involve graduate students in research. Indeed, many schools and colleges require that graduate students actively participate in research projects related to their discipline or course of study and many require that graduate students enroll in prescribed research courses. These requirements are hallmarks of a tier‐one research university. From classroom projects to final thesis, report, dissertation, or treatise, graduate students are involved in research.

As a tier‐one research institution, the university supports cutting‐edge research in all disciplines, offering more than 200 dedicated research units and centers. Most of these are based in individual colleges and schools, where they provide opportunities for graduate students to engage in interdisciplinary research that complements the academic goals of their departments and degree programs.

Moreover, there are numerous research fellowships, as well as employment opportunities, that allow graduate students to serve as research assistants or research interns. For example, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF‐GRFP) offers five‐year graduate fellowships (including three years of full stipend support) for students in science and engineering fields. In addition, the Harry Ransom Center (HRC), an internationally renowned humanities research library and museum at UT Austin, awards research fellowships for projects that require substantial use of its on‐site collections. The HRC fellowships support research in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, and cultural history. A majority of the research grants obtained by university researchers include opportunities for graduate student involvement, often on a paid basis.

Office of Undergraduate Research

The School of Undergraduate Studies (UGS) houses the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), which aims to foster undergraduate participation in research in all the disciplines. OUR’s primary objectives are to:

 Raise visibility of undergraduate research and creative activity efforts across campus so that an increased number of students and faculty can collaborate on research projects;  Connect undergraduates with research resources and opportunities available in the colleges and schools in order to enhance their academic experience; and  Coordinate outreach to first‐generation and minority students to increase participation in research and creative activity.

As part of its efforts to increase undergraduate participation in research, OUR offers three course numbers students may use to receive credit for research experiences with university faculty – UGS 310K, Undergraduate Research Experience (lower‐division course); UGS 320K, Undergraduate Research Experience (upper‐division course, appropriate for research assistantship experiences); and UGS 320L, Undergraduate Research Experience (upper division course, appropriate for independent research projects).

Additionally, OUR coordinates competitive scholarships to support undergraduate research experiences and presentation at national conferences. The largest of these scholarship programs is the Undergraduate Research Fellowship. This program awards up to $1,000 for independent research projects conducted by undergraduate students. The program is competitive, with one competition held in the fall semester and one in the spring semester.

Other OUR activities include:

 An annual Research Week designed to showcase undergraduate research across the campus and provide students opportunities to present their work;  The Texas Student Research Showdown, an annual research communication video competition;  The Eureka online database of faculty research interests and projects, which is designed to help connect undergraduates with research experiences and faculty mentors; and  Regular information sessions on how to get involved in research and workshops on research‐ related skills and topics.

UGS also helps all undergraduate colleges and schools implement the Independent Inquiry Flag into the undergraduate curriculum. The Independent Inquiry Flag requires undergraduate students in every major to take at least one research‐related course. Undergraduate students also have the opportunity to publish the results of their research in the Undergraduate Research Journal, a student‐edited, multidisciplinary journal at the university.

College and School Initiatives

Several colleges and schools have created formal research opportunities for undergraduate students, as well. The McCombs School of Business sponsors the Undergraduate Research Assistantship program which has the twin goals of facilitating faculty research while also mentoring and inspiring interested

12 students to pursue research. Under this program, faculty members invite students to participate in semester‐long research projects; the school awards a grant to support each student for 10 hours per week. To date, this program has provided more than 150 grants. On average, 15 undergraduate students participate in these research projects each semester. The school expanded this program in 2017 with a team of undergraduate research assistants working under the direction of the McCombs Behavioral Lab coordinator. In addition, the Business Honors Program has a Research Interest Group comprised of freshman and sophomores who attend a weekly seminar during the fall semester to learn about how to get involved in research at the university.

The College of Natural Sciences (CNS) offers the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI), whereby undergraduate students become involved in research during their first semester on campus. Students participating in this program are subsequently eligible for Undergraduate Research Fellowships. Nearly 1,000 new students participate in research each year through FRI, roughly 40 percent of incoming freshman. FRI students join one of almost 30 faculty‐led research groups and receive course credit for their activities.

FRI has had a dramatic effect on student success. According to a study published in 2016 using a matched comparison group, FRI students are 17 percent more likely to graduate and FRI graduates are 23 percent more likely to earn a STEM degree (Rodenbusch, Hernandez, Simmons & Dolan; 2016). Summer undergraduate researchers who work on projects under the supervision of a faculty member or research supervisor can apply for fellowship support provided by CNS. In 2017, more than 140 undergraduates, including first‐year and advanced students, received these awards. Every spring, CNS celebrates its student researchers at its Undergraduate Research Forum, a day‐long event where more than 250 students present posters describing their research. The best and most innovative posters and presentations are recognized with awards judged and sponsored by the university, faculty, alumni, and industry.

The Jackson School of Geosciences encourages undergraduate students to participate in research activities through the Jackson Scholars Program, which focuses on third‐ and fourth‐year students who conduct independent research under supervision of a faculty member and often with a graduate student mentor. Many of the honors theses are carried through to publication in formal peer‐reviewed literature. The Jackson School is now in early phases of a major curriculum reform that will include multiple pathways for undergraduates to engage in research activities starting in the first year and extending throughout their time in the school.

The Moody College of Communication sponsors the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre‐Graduate School Internship Program. The objective of the program is to connect undergraduates with faculty and veteran graduate students in their field of study to explore those unique aspects of graduate study that make it distinct from the undergraduate experience (e.g., conducting research, writing for scholarly audiences, participating in seminars, serving as teaching and research assistants, publishing articles in professional journals, becoming members of scholarly organizations and learned societies, preparing for an academic or professional career, etc.).

The College of Liberal Arts developed the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program to offer a structured approach for undergraduate students to become engaged in research being conducted by faculty members. The College also offers a summer internship program – the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience in Psychology – that provides hands‐on training in research.

The School of Nursing has an Undergraduate Honors Program that admits 12 students each year. Honors students take the required nursing research course during the fall semester of the sophomore year. They then work with a nursing faculty mentor over the next five semesters to plan and implement a research project. They produce a research paper and present their project at a conference, such as the campus undergraduate research day or a nursing conference. In addition to the honors program, any student with an interest in research may enroll in an independent study to work with a nursing faculty member conducting a research study.

Experiential Learning Faculty Working Group

In October 2017, the executive vice president and provost launches the Experiential Learning Faculty Working Group. Undergraduate education at UT Austin is distinguished by a wide and growing array of immersive, engaging learning experiences led by outstanding faculty scholars. The Faculty Innovation Center (FIC) suggests that providing experiential learning opportunities means creating assignments and activities based on real‐life situations or primary research that engage students in reflective, data‐driven problem‐solving with no predetermined right answers. This learning occurs when undergraduates work closely with UT Austin faculty in research labs, studios, and world‐class collections to discover knowledge and create new insights.

To enhance experiential learning opportunities, including undergraduate research, the provost asked the Working Group to explore questions about how faculty and academic units should be supported in developing, scaling, and integrating experiential learning. The charge of the Working Group is to:

 Define the characteristics and principles of high‐quality experiential learning that apply across disciplines.  Review the options currently available to students to apply and create knowledge through high‐ quality, high‐impact learning experiences.  Develop recommendations for scaling these opportunities so they are integrated into the educational experience of every UT undergraduate, taking into account: o current structural and procedural barriers to participation; o measurable goals the University should set; and o appropriate incentives, support, and resources faculty and departments need to do this well.

The Working Group will submit its report to the provost in April 2018.

Plan to Improve Master’s Degree‐Level Education

The plan for improving master’s degree‐level education includes a discussion of existing and new programs.

Summary of Existing Programs

The university offers 137 master’s degree programs in 15 colleges and schools – the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural Sciences, Moody College of Communication, McCombs School of Business, the College of Education, the College of Fine Arts, Cockrell School of Engineering, Jackson School of Geosciences, the School of Architecture, the School of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, Steve Hicks

School of Social Work, the School of Information, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, and the Law School. In addition, the Graduate School administers two inter‐collegial, interdisciplinary master’s degree programs – the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Writing and the Master of Science in Computational Science, Engineering, and Math (MSCSEM).

Each master’s degree program undergoes review by an external committee of experts every seven years. The strengths and weaknesses of the programs are evaluated with the goal of improving quality to meet near‐and long‐term goals of the programs, the college of school, and the university. Although there is room for improvement, the university’s master’s degree programs rank highly compared to peer institutions.

The university promotes interdisciplinary research at the master’s level by offering 58 dual‐degree programs that enable students to pursue graduate coursework in two fields and simultaneously fulfill the requirements of two master’s‐level degrees awarded by UT Austin. In addition, the university offers 11 dual‐degree programs that promote and support interdisciplinary research activities with other institutions – Tecnologico de Monterrey‐Campus Sante Fe, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the UT Health Science Center at Houston (School of Public Health). These arrangements lead to one master’s‐level degree awarded by UT Austin and a second master’s‐level degree awarded by the other participating institution.

The university also offers integrated degree programs in accounting; computer science; computational science, engineering and math; electrical and computer engineering; and information studies that enable students to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in a single continuous degree plan. Through the application of course waivers to common course requirements and the reservation of coursework for graduate credit, integrated degree programs are designed to be completed in less time and at a lower cost than is required to complete the two associated degree programs individually. Most often, the bachelor’s and master’s degrees are awarded simultaneously.

While the majority of master’s programs at the university are completed in residence, many programs offer flexible course scheduling and delivery options designed to enable working professionals to earn an advanced degree while maintaining their careers. For example, the Master of Arts (MA) in Human Dimensions of Organizations and the Master’s in Engineering Management (MEM) provide class meetings on alternating weekends while, others, such as the Master of Science (MS) in Technology Commercialization are delivered in a 100 percent online format.

Areas of Emphasis for New Programs

The university offers a comprehensive range of master’s degrees in more than 100 areas of study. Faculty have expressed interest in developing new master’s degrees in interdisciplinary fields that transcend traditional college and school boundaries. For example, faculty from the McCombs School of Business, Cockrell School of Engineering, Jackson School of Geosciences, the School of Law, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs are exploring the development of a master’s degree in energy management that will leverage research across the participating schools and colleges.

Plan for Existing Doctoral Programs

The plan for doctoral programs includes a discussion of existing programs and new programs.

Summary of Existing Programs

The university administers 95 doctoral degree programs and four professional degree programs in 15 colleges and schools – the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural Sciences, Moody College of Communication, McCombs School of Business, the College of Education, the College of Fine Arts, Cockrell School of Engineering, Jackson School of Geosciences, the School of Architecture, the School of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, Steve Hicks School of Social Work, the School of Information, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, and the Dell Medical School. Most recently, the university added a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 2014 and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree in 2015. Both of these new doctoral programs were developed drawing on the strengths of existing departments, centers, and schools at the university.

In 2014, the Dell Medical School (DMS) and its associated MD degree program were added to the university’s program inventory. DMS is the first medical school in nearly 50 years to be built at an Association of American Universities (AAU) member institution. The MD degree program is complementary to existing degree programs, which provides rich opportunities and strong support for interdisciplinary education and research. In addition, DMS is able to leverage existing faculty at the university in developing and delivering the medical school curriculum. In 2016‐17, DMS developed three dual‐degree programs that will enable MD students to complete a master’s degree during the third year of the MD curriculum. Students may select from the following dual‐degree programs:

• Doctor of Medicine (MD) / Master of Business Administration (MBA); • Doctor of Medicine (MD) / Master of Science in Engineering (MSE), with a major in Biomedical Engineering; or • Doctor of Medicine (MD) / Master of Education (MEd), with a major in Educational Psychology

In addition, DMS created a dual‐degree program with The University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center (School of Public Health) leading to an MD from UT Austin and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from UT Houston‐Health Science Center.

Quality Control

A general assessment of graduate programs is addressed at various points throughout this document, and although there is room for improvement, the university’s graduate programs rank highly compared to peer institutions. At the graduate level, more than 40 programs and disciplines are among the top 10 in the national, according to U.S. News & World Report’s “2017 Best Graduate Schools.” All doctoral programs undergo review every seven years. These reviews begin with a rigorous self‐study and include review committees composed of faculty members from peer institutions. The strengths and weaknesses of programs are evaluated with the goal of improving quality to meet near‐ and long‐term goals of the programs, college, and university. During the most recent review cycle (2012‐19), external review teams consistently praised the outstanding quality of the university’s faculty and expressed the need to address noncompetitive stipends.

The university, through the schools and colleges and with the support of the Graduate School, strives to recruit and retain outstanding faculty members and graduate students as the primary way to maintain and achieve excellence in doctoral programs. An institution’s overall ranking is largely based on the strength of its doctoral and research programs. Maintaining and developing top‐ranked graduate

16 programs require that the university attract and retain not only the best faculty, but also the best students. Two major goals of the Graduate School are to (1) recruit and retain the best students by offering competitive support packages, and (2) enhance the quality of graduate education by developing and strengthening its faculty and student body.

Low‐Producing Programs

In recent years, one PhD program was classified as low‐producing for three years in a row by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) – the PhD in Latin American Studies. In the early 2000s, the faculty of the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies (LLILAS) made a concerted effort to limit the number of enrolled PhD students. This effort was carried out at the behest of the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and was lauded at the time as a means to raise the academic standards of the program. At that time, LLILAS admitted an average of just under one PhD student per year. The program has now shifted to admitting three to four students per year depending on the availability of funding. Thus, although the program had only one PhD graduate in AY 2016‐17, it anticipates a steady increase over the next five years.

In 2012, in an effort to further enhance the PhD program and in response to being flagged as a low‐ producing program, the director of LLILAS convened a special committee comprised of affiliated faculty from different disciplines to review the program and make recommendations. These recommendations were fully implemented by 2014. The degree was redesigned, emphasizing the program’s commitment to two complementary training objectives: (1) rigorous inter‐disciplinary programs of study in select areas of distinctive excellence among the faculty, and (2) socially engaged scholarship with "real world" applications of academic research. The program now invites applications from outstanding candidates whose interests align with three broad themes, which are special areas of strength among affiliated faculty: (1) cultural agency, (2) social inequalities, and (3) sustainable democracies. LLILAS also put in place appropriate systems of mentorship, monitoring of progress toward degree, and support of professional development for doctoral students.

Quality Enhancement

The university has targeted resources to enhance certain graduate programs such as history ($1.3 million), English ($1 million over four years), and the Center for Mexican American Studies ($0.8 million over four years) to raise their national profile and ranking. Available resources are being used to hire top‐tier faculty members and to provide higher levels of financial support to graduate students by raising stipends and fellowships. There is a great deal of competition with national peers to recruit top‐ tier faculty members and graduate students. However, by concentrating on selected graduate programs, the university is actively working to move programs currently ranked in the top 10 to 15 to greater national prominence (i.e. the top 10).

Despite being severely hampered by inadequate financial resources, the individual colleges and schools that administer doctoral degrees have taken a number of steps to raise the stature of PhD programs. These include the following initiatives and goals – reduce time to degree, increase completion rates, publicize the academic accomplishments of students, and enhance professional development opportunities to facilitate and support a high rate of placements following graduation.

The university seeks to enhance the quality of its graduate programs through continuous improvement assessment activities similar to those for undergraduate programs. This approach is also required for

17 accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and many of the professional accrediting bodies. Assessment serves to guide program‐level innovation and excellence. Faculty and staff receive periodic training in the theory and practice of assessment. They construct strategic plans to identify significant elements of their programs and the relationships among goals, outcomes, and activities. In addition, they ensure that identified changes are made, disseminated, and reviewed. Assessment efforts result in action on curricula, pedagogy, operations, processes, or services. Just as for undergraduate programs, the faculty identify program educational objectives, program outcomes that enable the program educational objectives to be achieved, curricula that enable students to acquire the program outcomes, an assessment plan to document how well students have achieved the program outcomes at the time of graduation or before, and how well graduates of the program have achieved the program educational objectives several years after graduation. Where students have not achieved outcomes or objectives and deficiencies in the curriculum or teaching effectiveness can be shown to be a cause, improvements in either or both are made.

The university is also engaged in the mandatory external review of graduate programs on the seven‐year cycle required by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). In addition, The University of Texas System mandates that each academic component improve advising of PhD students by implementing a “Milestones Agreement.” UT Austin has developed an online advising tool to identify the specific degree requirements for all PhD programs, grouped into sections marked by milestones along with a timeline estimate as to when each milestone should be met. This information helps students understand what is required for completing the degree and the timeline for making satisfactory progress to do so. In addition, the university is launching a new career center to help provide information on career options to students and has participated in the “Versatile PhD” program to assist students.

Because this is a continuous improvement process, it is expected that improvements in program curricula, as well as teaching effectiveness, will continue over time.

Comparisons with National Peers

The Graduate School is constantly benchmarking the university’s graduate programs with its national peers. Table 3 provides data for the university and several peer institutions, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report (2017). Table headings indicate the number of programs ranked in the category indicated. For example, UT Austin has four programs ranked #1 and 45 programs ranked in the top 10 programs nationally. UC‐Berkeley, on the other hand, has 30 programs ranked #1, 12 ranked #2, and 110 ranked in the top 10. These rankings are for all graduate programs – master’s and doctoral combined – and the word “program” is used by U.S. News and World Report to refer to specific areas of study that may, in some cases, be subareas or concentrations of a graduate program at the university.

With 45 programs in the top 10 nationally, UT Austin is among the premier public universities in the United States. However, there is still much work to be done to compete with the number of top‐ranked programs at peer institutions such as Berkeley (110), Michigan (97), and Wisconsin (53). The university’s rankings are particularly impressive, given that only 13 percent of the university’s operating budget is provided by the state. State appropriations per student are significantly higher at peer institutions such as Berkeley and North Carolina, both of which receive at least four times more state funding per student.

Table 3. Rankings of Graduate Programs

Institution #1 #2 Top 10 Top 11‐25 Top 25 Univ. of Texas‐Austin 4 2 45 37 82 Univ. of California‐Berkeley 30 12 110 10 120 Univ. of Michigan‐ Ann Arbor 9 6 97 28 125 Univ. of Wisconsin‐Madison 5 6 53 36 89 Univ. of Illinois‐Urbana/Champaign 4 2 35 19 54 Univ. of North Carolina‐Chapel Hill 3 5 29 33 62 Source: U.S. News & World Report (2017)

The Graduate School has established a goal to increase the number of graduate programs in the top 10 nationally by providing additional graduate student support to programs ranked just beyond the top 10. Programs currently ranked 11 through 15 include finance, management, production/operations, supply chain/logistics, education, elementary teacher education, secondary teacher education, mechanical engineering, law, tax law, audiology, chemistry, organic chemistry, theoretical chemistry, math, physics, atomic/molecular/optical physics, public affairs, public policy analysis, and sociology. Increased student support will be used to enhance the recruitment and retention of the best students in these areas. In addition to targeting these areas to bring them into the top 10, programs already in the top 10 will continue to require significant resources to ensure that they retain their premier ranking.

Plan for New Doctoral Programs

Areas of Emphasis

As a tier‐one research institution, UT Austin maintains a full array of graduate programs, offering approximately 140 master’s degrees, 95 doctoral degrees, and four professional degrees. This array of graduate programs reflects the development over time of well‐established fields of study and also the creation of new interdisciplinary programs through which some of the most exciting research, scholarly activity, and learning is taking place. Proposals for new areas of study emerge from the faculty in the colleges and schools and through the Graduate School and the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost for consideration.

The university is currently awaiting final approval of a proposal to create a PhD in Mexican‐American and Latina/o Studies. The proposal is pending with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). The program will prepare students to engage in an interdisciplinary, scholarly approach to examining the lives, cultures, and histories of peoples of Mexican and Latina/o origin in the state of Texas and the United States, as well as their diasporas (both the origin and destination nations). Through curriculum, research, and pre‐professional training, students will be at the forefront of innovation in interdisciplinary, scholarly conversations about critical ethnic studies, trans‐border studies, immigration, race, gender, sexuality, social class, and the health science humanities. The Department of Mexican‐American and Latina/o Studies already has the faculty and funding in place to develop a world‐ class doctoral program. Therefore, no additional monetary resources will be required to launch the PhD program.

Assessment

In compliance with THECB rules, annual progress reports will be filed for the new PhD program during the first five years of implementation. The university is also engaged in the mandatory external review of all its graduate programs on the seven‐year cycle required by THECB. The first round of reviews, initiated in Fall 2012, will be completed in 2019. Each program review includes an internal self‐study and an external review conducted by outside experts. Many programs undergo additional external reviews for continuous quality improvement while others are subject to reviews required by professional accrediting agencies.

Regional Impact

As noted above, the university is a tier‐one research institution and already offers a full array of graduate programs. A careful assessment of program need and market demand is conducted prior to the development of each new degree program. Among other things, the preliminary program assessment includes careful consideration of the associated job market, related graduate programs offered within Texas, demonstrated student demand, and industry needs. The university assesses the impact of its graduate programs through surveys of alumni and industry partners in addition to conducting regular assessment and external program reviews.

New degree programs and research opportunities developed at UT Austin enable the university to meet the needs of our region in a variety of ways. For example:

• The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), created in 2015, prepares individuals to function at the most advanced level of nursing practice using evidence‐based research and scientific knowledge to implement and direct care, as well as to serve as administrative leaders and faculty in schools of nursing. Program graduates are qualified to perform in multiple settings and have the essential competencies necessary to function and provide leadership in the healthcare system of the 21st century in clinical practice, clinical leadership, clinical research, and clinical teaching. No other school of nursing in central Texas currently offers the DNP. The closest program is 80 miles away at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

• The Dell Medical School (DMS) and its associated Doctor of Medicine (MD) were created in 2014 in unprecedented partnership with the citizens of Austin and Travis County. As a result, DMS relies heavily on locally generated tax revenue which creates a significant relationship between the school and the community. DMS has both the responsibility to help create a vital, inclusive health ecosystem in Austin and Travis County, but also the opportunity to create truly innovative healthcare models in partnership with the community.

• The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS), which is pending final approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), will be the first such doctoral degree offered by Texas members of the Association of American Universities (AAU). The program is designed to provide students with specialized knowledge and about Mexican‐American and Latina/o populations and to provide skills necessary for working with such populations. Graduates of the program will, therefore, be qualified to support the demographic needs of the region as they enter the academic job market, administration, and public and private sector employment.

Plan for Faculty and Student Development

Faculty Research

In general, high‐quality faculty and graduate students, reasonable teaching loads, excellent research facilities, and research‐oriented colleagues are necessary ingredients for producing research of the first class. Consequently, numerous programs, activities, and policies have been enacted to achieve these goals, including the recruiting of outstanding graduate students and faculty members and the formal recognition of innovative research.

In addition to the university’s Marine Science Institute (MSI) in Port Aransas, the McDonald Observatory in West Texas, the Pickle Research Campus in north Austin, and the Bee Cave research facility in west Austin, there are 90 organized research units (ORUs), as well as dozens of school‐ or college‐specific research centers. ORUs range from internationally acclaimed institutes, such as the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American (LLILAS) studies, the IC2 Institute, and the Drug Dynamics Institute to the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) and the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology.

In 2017, the university was awarded a second National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC) – Prototype Development of Recipe Optimization for Deposition and Etching (RODEo). As of January 2018, there were only 34 active ERCs across the United States. The university’s institutes, bureaus, and centers serve as catalysts to focus research on a particular topic or domain, facilitate interactions among researchers, and emphasize collaborative research to maximize research productivity and impact.

The university supports limited research leaves for tenured and tenure‐track faculty through its Faculty Research Assignment and Summer Research Assignment programs. The Graduate School also offers a faculty travel grant program to enable faculty to attend conferences to present their scholarly work and learn of the most recent findings of others.

Moreover, besides research institutes, bureaus, and centers, each college and school has its own, sometimes unique, plan to assist faculty in becoming more productive, more innovative, and more effective in conducting research. Most have research or development funds that faculty members can draw upon to support data collection and analysis, travel to conferences to present research, or hire research assistants. Many colleges and schools also have competitive research funds for which faculty members can apply; these funds are sometimes large enough to support a non‐teaching semester or a summer stipend. The College Research Fellowship Program in many colleges and schools is an example of this type of funding to free‐up faculty time for research through semester‐long leaves.

Colleges and schools have programs to assist junior faculty members in obtaining external funding for their research. Grant‐writing workshops are often held to help junior faculty members learn about sources of research funds and how to navigate grant and fellowship application processes. Formal mentoring programs wherein a senior faculty member mentors a particular junior faculty member for up to five years represent an attempt to improve research productivity. Several colleges and schools have specialized staff members dedicated to identifying grant opportunities and assisting junior faculty members when they develop research proposals and apply for research grants. A majority of the colleges and schools provide incentives for innovative and impactful research that include financial awards and public recognition.

At the university‐level, several programs are designed to increase faculty research productivity and innovativeness. The Visiting Scholar Program, whereby scholars from other institutions can spend up to a year at the university conducting collaborative research, is an attempt to stimulate innovative research by bringing fresh ideas to the university. The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) has implemented numerous protocols and policies to facilitate the application process for external funding and administration of grants received. Improvements have also been made in the library system (such as easier online access to millions of documents), information technologies (such as more and faster computer and Internet connectivity), and purchasing procedures (such as simplifying the manner in which research supplies are purchased – a 24‐hour “store” for research supplies).

In 2016, the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) launched a research development portfolio. This portfolio has developed a set of strategic and tactical activities designed to increase individual principal investigator’s (PI) capacity as well as overall institutional competitiveness for securing external research funding. VPR has strategically designed and supports programming that stimulates the types of cross‐college, interdisciplinary research that can attract major external funds, as well as seed‐funding programs that target individual investigators seeking to take their research in new directions. Research development offerings provided to PIs across campus include:

 Monthly faculty development seminars that feature panels of successful campus PIs sharing advice and best practices for targeting specific funding agencies or programs;  Campus‐wide access to an external funding opportunity database that aligns PIs’ publication lists and self‐stated research interests with relevant opportunities;  One‐to‐one pairing of junior faculty with senior faculty (often outside their home department) who serve as mentors in helping the junior faculty to develop proposals;  Major center grant and institutional training grant development support, including gathering competitive intelligence about programs, organizing red team review of proposals, and substantive editing of proposal drafts;  VPR Research and Creative Grants, which seed individual investigators’ research efforts that have not yet obtained external funding;  VPR Special Research Grants, which provide funds to cover unanticipated research costs on funded projects;  UT Pop‐Up Institutes, which enable teams of interdisciplinary researchers across campus to organize for a one‐month focused sprint toward a shared research goal with dedicated time, space, cash, and staffing resources provided; and  Bridging Barriers, UT’s campus‐wide research grand challenges initiative.

Role of Private Philanthropy in Faculty Research

The University Development Office (UDO) works closely with private donors and the university community to cultivate philanthropic support for the faculty research. Gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations, and other entities help attract the best faculty and graduate students, improve campus facilities, enrich the educational experience for undergraduates, expand services to the community and state, and much more. Frontline fundraising staff in UDO work hand‐in‐hand with development personnel in the colleges and schools to identify prospects, cultivate relationships, and solicit gifts. Other staff in UDO work in teams to provide centralized services for campus‐wide fundraising efforts, including such functions as gift processing, prospect research and clearance,

22 endowment creation and compliance, creative services (brochures, invitations, etc.), special events management, annual fund operations, and estate planning.

UDO helps advance the research mission of the university in various ways. With the support of UT System, the office substantially expanded staff in 2017, which has resulted in increased support and services to academic and administrative units, including the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR). Frontline gift officers are now embedded in many of the colleges and schools where they are responsible for raising private support for decanal priorities, including research. Foundation relations staff work with faculty and program leaders to develop and submit proposals for funding of research, facilities, curriculum development, and related priorities, providing assistance with writing, editing, and supporting materials. They also collaborate with VPR to develop training sessions for faculty related to specific requests for proposals (RFPs) from foundations. Corporate and foundation relations staff meet regularly with VPR staff to coordinate strategies to engage corporations and foundations in interdisciplinary projects developed through Bridging Barriers and other research initiatives. Foundation relations and prospect research staff help identify prospective corporate and foundation funding partners for myriad projects. In cases where proposals are “by invitation only,” foundation relations staff are often the first point of contact; they organize introductory meetings between executive leadership, faculty, and program officers or write case statements to request that these selective funders add the university to their invitation lists.

To encourage corporate funding for research, UDO is developing a sector‐based fundraising program in which the newly expanded corporate relations staff will identify and develop relationships with companies in industries that are relevant to UT Austin’s priorities, such as energy, technology, health care, and more. Corporate relations staff play an important role in stewarding corporate relationships by hosting executive visits, which help sustain or sometimes lay the groundwork for research partnerships. UDO also facilitates the processing of “gifts for research” in cases where companies prefer to provide unrestricted support for a particular area of study, rather than funding a scope‐of‐work project.

Staff in UDO, particularly the corporate and foundation relations teams, interact continuously with personnel in research administration areas of the university, primarily the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) and the Office of Industry Engagement (OIE). These development/research relationships have been cultivated and strengthened over the years and form the basis for efficient handling of proposals and awards supporting research and other priorities of the University. Development shares the cost – with OIE – of the university’s membership in the University‐Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP). IN addition, UDO and VPR work together to enhance relationships with members of the Science Philanthropy Alliance.

Faculty Recognition

Faculty members are recognized for their teaching and research accomplishments by various means, both within the university and outside. Within the university, recognition takes the form of teaching awards such as the Academy of Distinguished Teachers (ADT), the Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellow Program, as well as a number of university‐wide teaching awards along with an even larger number of school and college awards. Faculty members also receive awards external to the university such as the University Co‐op’s Hamilton Awards and professional society awards. Descriptions of a sample of these programs are provided below.

Recognition for research accomplishments also takes place within and outside the university. Within the university, school and college awards, endowed professorships, endowed fellowships, and other recognitions are available. For example, the McCombs School of Business recognizes outstanding research through such awards as the CBA Foundation Research Excellence Award for Assistant Professors and the Career Award for Outstanding Research Contributions. The College of Liberal Arts sponsors the Humanities Research Award and the Cockrell School of Engineering sponsors the Billy and Claud R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award.

Outside the university, the most prestigious recognitions are from international sources, such as the Nobel Prize and the Japan Prize, an international award similar to the Nobel Prize. Faculty have also received awards from national sources, such as the National Medal of Science, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Academy of Nursing, and the American Law Institute. Other awards include the Fulbright American Scholars, Guggenheim Fellows, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation Career Awards, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, American Association for Advancement of Science Fellows, Sloan Research Fellows, the Wolf Prize, Steele Prize, Birkhoff Prize, and American Council of Learned Societies Fellows. Faculty at the University receive a number of awards from these entities each year.

There are numerous other ways that faculty receive national and international recognition. Among these are leadership positions held in professional societies, journal editorships, performances and showings in national and international venues, public service activities in municipal, state, national, and international settings, and so forth.

All of these awards add to the prestige of the faculty and the university. The faculty are the “face” of the university to many, and their prestige translates into the prestige of academic and research programs that influences academic quality and reputation. The university encourages activities by the faculty that lead to these awards.

Academy of Distinguished Teachers

The Academy of Distinguished Teachers is emblematic of the university’s commitment to recognizing excellence in teaching. Comprising approximately five percent of the tenured faculty, the Academy provides leadership in improving the quality and depth of the undergraduate experience. Members of the Academy advise the president and provost on matters related to the university’s instructional mission; participate in seminars, colloquia, and workshops on teaching effectiveness; and serve as mentors to new faculty.

Established in February 1995, the Academy was one of the first associations of its kind in the nation. Each year, new members of the Academy are selected through a rigorous evaluation process. Deans of colleges and schools annually nominate faculty for membership; a committee that includes members of the Academy, students, and other faculty review the nominations and recommend a slate of honorees to the provost who makes the final selections. Honorees are awarded the title University Distinguished Teaching Professor and serve for the duration of their tenure at the university.

Teaching Awards

More than 150 teaching awards are offered annually at the university. University‐wide teaching awards, administered by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost alone, total more than $150,000 annually and include:

 Academy of Distinguished Teachers Award  Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowships  Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship  Jean Holloway Award for Excellence in Teaching  Joe and Bettie Branson Ward Excellence Award  President's Associates Teaching Excellence Award  William David Blunk Memorial Professorship

The provost also submits nominees for state‐ and UT System‐wide teaching awards, for which UT Austin faculty members are frequently recognized and rewarded up to $150,000 annually:

 Minnie Stevens Piper Professorship  Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards  University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers

A multitude of additional teaching awards are given by individual colleges and schools.

Donald D. Harrington Fellows Program

The Donald D. Harrington Fellows Program was created by Sybil Harrington as a tribute to her late husband. She envisioned a program that would support gifted and ambitious scholars who would, in turn, share their knowledge and success with future generations, perpetuating the legacy and memory of Don Harrington. The university is privileged to be the home of the Harrington Faculty Fellows Program. This preeminent research program is designed to attract outstanding faculty that are in the initial stages of their professional careers. Fellowships are awarded annually to the most highly qualified applicants from universities throughout the United States and around the world.

The Harrington Faculty Fellows Program supports approximately five fellows each academic year. These fellows visit the university to pursue their research and collaborate with colleagues. The normal period of appointment is one academic year, although some fellows choose to stay through the summer as well. A Harrington Faculty Fellow is on leave from his or her home university and is appointed as a visiting member of the university faculty, with a stipend representing a substantial increase over the salary at the home university, relocation expenses for external fellows, health insurance, and other benefits. Office space and limited administrative support are provided by the host department or organized research unit (ORU).

Since the primary purpose of the Harrington Faculty Fellowship is to pursue research, the fellows have no teaching obligations. Fellows are, of course, free to conduct seminars if they wish. In addition, each fellow is provided with funding to support a symposium during the period of his or her stay.

To ensure a diversity of backgrounds among the recipients and to sustain the international prestige of the program, at least 75 percent of fellows are recruited from institutions outside the university; no more than 25 percent are selected from within the university.

All Harrington Faculty Fellows (as well as Graduate Fellows) become lifetime members of the Harrington Society. This organization is designed to build a sense of community among the scholars through special programs and events that include seminars, dinners, and monthly informal luncheons. Members are encouraged to continue their involvement in the Society after their fellowships have concluded.

Robert W. Hamilton Book Award

The University Co‐op’s Robert W. Hamilton Book Award recognizes leading authors. The grand prize is $10,000 with four additional $3,000 prizes. Finalists are selected by a committee of scholars appointed by the Office of the Vice President for Research. All university faculty members with books published during the previous academic year are eligible for the award. These awards are named in honor of Professor Robert W. Hamilton, past chairman of the University Co‐op Board.

Collaborations and Partnerships

In order to solve the most pressing problems in science and society, researchers must increasingly collaborate among colleagues not only from their own disciplines, but with those from outside their disciplines, as well. Enhancing support for interdisciplinary research and investing in key research areas are among the president’s stated goals for research at the university.

The primary, formal mechanisms for encouraging and enhancing cooperative research efforts among faculty members and fostering collaborative research within the university are interdisciplinary research institutes and centers. Other mechanisms include school‐wide, college‐wide, and university‐wide seminars and workshops, special interest groups created to bring faculty members from different disciplines together (such as faculty members conducting research on various aspects of nanotechnology), and joint faculty appointments in different departments. In addition to these efforts, the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) has initiated two large‐scale cross‐disciplinary programs – Bridging Barriers Grand Challenges and UT Pop‐Up Institutes.

As previously mentioned, Bridging Barriers is a university‐wide research grand challenges initiative that brings together experts to address pressing problems facing Texas, the nation, and beyond. UT expects to launch a new Bridging Barriers project each year; it is anticipated that each project will continue for approximately 10 years and will tackle some of the hardest questions in the natural and human‐made world. In Planet Texas 2050, the inaugural Bridging Barriers project launched in 2018, researchers are committed to developing programs and policy recommendations in the next 10 years that will improve Texas’ adaptability and build its resilience in the face of rapid urbanization, declining water resources, growing energy needs, and changes to the ecosystem. Their work will stretch across multiple disciplines – from geosciences and engineering to archeology, architecture, medicine, and more – and will help accurately predict possible futures for the state. Planet Texas 2050 involves more than 120 UT faculty and senior research staff from 14 different colleges, schools, and units across campus.

Also launched during FY 2017, Pop‐Up Institutes support interdisciplinary teams of UT Austin researchers who spend the academic year preparing for intense activity focused on a specific area of research. Their institute then ‘pops up’ for one summer month, providing dedicated resources, time and

26 space for researchers across campus to combine their unique perspectives and distinct skill sets in pursuit of a common goal. Three teams have been selected for FY 2018:

 Health and Humanities: Narrative Medicine, Equity and Diversity, and Community Practice  Towards Solving the Problem of Substance Misuse and Addiction among Youth and Emerging Adults  Understanding Planetary Habitability: Where Does Life Exist Beyond Earth and How Can We Find It?

Additionally, a strategy of “cluster hires,” wherein a group of faculty members is hired in a particular area to maximize research synergies, is also being employed to foster research cooperation. Collaborations and partnerships involving university and non‐university faculty members derive from the Visiting Scholar Program, inter‐institutional cooperative research grants, initiatives emanating from The University of Texas System, and the efforts of individual university institutes and centers to involve faculty members from other universities in research‐related activities. The Dell Medical School (DMS) is an excellent example, in many ways, of crossing disciplines. The DMS Texas Health Catalyst program draws support from the schools of medicine, engineering, natural sciences, pharmacy, and the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) to accelerate translational research for value‐based health products.

New Faculty

The number of tenured and tenure‐track faculty (T/TT) full‐time equivalents (FTEs) for FY 2017 is 1747.16. Extrapolations of T/TT faculty FTEs into the future depends on the assumption made about growth in faculty numbers over the planning period. The university is in a period of constrained budgets; faculty replacement is the only faculty hiring taking place at this time. It is possible, although not definite, that this situation will persist for the next seven years.

Student Awards

Numerous competitive research awards currently exist at the college and school level to encourage student research. This research can reflect independent efforts by students, as well as thesis and dissertation work. Students receiving these awards are recognized publicly through a variety of campus media. Several colleges and schools provide administrative support to students who apply for external research awards. In recent years, several students have been named Marshall Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, or Truman Scholars. Additionally, since 2002, the University Co‐op has sponsored the George H. Mitchell Student Awards for Academic Excellence. Last year, five students received awards that ranged in value from $2,500 to $12,000.

The Graduate School administers a number of awards for graduate students. These include:

• Outstanding Dissertation Award: This award was established in 1979 to recognize exceptional work and to encourage the highest levels of scholarship, research, and writing. • William S. Livingston Outstanding Graduate Student Academic Employee Award: This award honors outstanding performance by graduate student academic employees. • Outstanding Master’s Thesis/Report Award: This award was established in 2003 to recognize exceptional work by master’s students and to encourage the highest levels of scholarship, research, and writing.

The Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research and coordinated by the School of Undergraduate Studies, awards up to $1,000 for independent research projects conducted by undergraduate students. These projects are supervised by a tenured or tenure‐track faculty member, lecturer, senior lecturer, or research scientist/engineer. The program is competitive, with one competition held in the fall semester and one in the spring semester.

Initiated by the International Board of Advisors (IBA), the President’s Award for Global Learning is a highly selective program that provides funding for teams of students to design and implement a project in an international community. It combines academic coursework with experiential learning, giving students the opportunity to work across disciplines with faculty mentors and international partners. Student teams are invited to propose a project under the themes of social impact, entrepreneurship, or expanding research, in one of seven eligible regions of the world. One proposal per region is selected by a special committee appointed by the president. The selected teams receive the cost of international travel, summer tuition, and project implementation.

Student Diversity

The university and the Graduate School are committed to recruiting and retaining underrepresented students. The Graduate School has an active and vigorous partnership with the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE), which was created to advance learning and working environments that foster a culture of excellence through diverse people, ideas, and perspectives.

While there is still much work to do, the university has made much progress in recent years reaching out to under‐represented groups. It is noteworthy, for instance, that the university is one of the largest producers of doctorates earned by Hispanics and African‐Americans in the United States. Table 4 presents the profile of graduate students at the university as of Fall 2017.

The Graduate School has a number of initiatives in place to work with the graduate programs to recruit and retain diverse students, including targeted student support and recruitment events. For example, the Graduate School attended the Thurgood Marshall Leadership Institute for the first time in 2017. This event focused primarily on students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Graduate School staff also returned to the University of Illinois‐Chicago and the California Diversity Forum in the fall and will return in the spring semester, as well. Each California Diversity Forum brings together 1,000 pre‐selected, high‐achieving undergraduate and master’s students from across California who are interested in pursuing a doctorate.

To date, for AY 2017‐18, Graduate School representatives attended 20 graduate recruiting fairs, 14 of which were in Texas. Many of these fairs focused on recruiting underrepresented students from the southern and western regions of Texas (Tables 5 and 6). University representatives made contact with almost 800 prospective students in Texas and 400 prospective students from outside Texas. (Asterisks represent a new fair for AY 2017‐18)

Table 4. Graduate Student Profile (Fall 2017)2

Total Graduate Enrollment 9,516

Gender Men 4,975 52.28% Women 4,541 47.72%

Classification Master’s 5,117 53.77% Doctoral 4,399 46.23%

Residence Texas 3,458 36.34% Out‐of‐State 3,106 32.64% International 2,952 31.02%

Ethnicity White only 4,271 44.88% Hispanic (any combination) 983 10.33% Black only 285 2.99% Black (2+ excl. Hispanic) 41 0.43% Asian only 590 6.20% American‐Indian only 17 0.18% Hawaiian/Pacific‐Islander only 5 0.05% 2+ (excl. Hispanic/Black) 136 1.43% Foreign 2,952 31.02% Unknown 236 2.48% Source: Office of Institutional Reporting, Research, and Information Systems (IRRIS), UT Austin

Table 5. Summary of Graduate School Outreach Activities (2015‐17)

2015 2016 2017 Recruiting Fairs (Total) 20 20 20 Recruiting Fairs (Texas) 13 14 14 Contacts with Prospective Graduate Students (Texas) 771 810 780 Contacts with Prospective Graduate Students (non‐Texas) 575 400 400 Source: The Graduate School, UT Austin

Graduate programs at UT Austin employ a variety of techniques to recruit diverse doctoral students. These include using existing funding sources to recruit top minority applicants, teaching courses and developing curriculum that attract a diverse range of applicants, and hiring faculty who can serve as role models and mentors to students from diverse backgrounds. In addition, many colleges and schools host annual recruitment events in which talented undergraduates from universities with large underrepresented populations come to campus, present their research, and receive an orientation on UT Austin graduate programs. These events include interactions with faculty, current students, and staff. In addition, many of the colleges and schools send representatives to annual meetings of groups that

2 Formula‐funded master’s and doctoral students only. Does not include JD, PharmD, or MD students or students enrolled in a self‐funded (Option III) program. In Fall 2017, 928 students were enrolled in the Law School, 489 students in the PharmD program, and 100 students in the Dell Medical School.

29 are dedicated to fostering diversity in higher education such as the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the Texas National McNair Scholars Research Conference.

Table 6. Graduate Recruiting Fairs attended by Graduate School Staff (2017‐18)

Date Location September 13 Texas Tech University Graduate & Professional Fair September 25 Big Ten Graduate School Expo (Purdue University) September 27 University of California – Berkeley (cancelled by institution) October 4 University of Texas at El Paso October 9 St. Edward’s University October 12 Texas A&M University October 18 Huston‐Tillotson University October 19 Chicago Graduate & Professional School Fair (University of Illinois at Chicago) October 20 University of Houston‐Downtown STEM Graduate School Fair October 23 Thurgood Marshall Leadership Institute* October 26 The University of Texas at San Antonio October 30 Texas A&M Kingsville October 31 Texas A&M Corpus Christi November 1 The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (Brownsville Campus) November 2 University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg Campus) November 3 Texas A&M International November 4 California Forum for Diversity November 18 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program* February 12 Texas State University* April 21 California Forum for Diversity Source: The Graduate School, UT Austin

Undergraduate Research

One of the Basic Education Requirements (BERs) for all graduates of the university is that students “participate in the process of inquiry through research, creative endeavors, or related activities.” The university strives to prepare undergraduate students for these inquiry and research experiences through its undergraduate major, minor, and certificate programs and through a core curriculum that requires all undergraduates to complete courses that provide students with skills necessary for engaging in inquiry.

In addition to a strong core curriculum aligned with the requirements of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), the university includes Flag requirements in every degree program. The Flags – independent inquiry, writing, quantitative reasoning, ethics and leadership, cultural diversity, and global cultures – were based on recommendations from the 2005 Task Force on Curricular Reform for updating and strengthening undergraduate education at the university.

These requirements were partially implemented in the 2010‐12 Undergraduate Catalog, with further implementation in subsequent catalogs, and with full implementation across all undergraduate degrees in the 2016‐18 Undergraduate Catalog. Within the next four years, all graduating students will be expected to fulfill these requirements in the process of completing their core, major, and elective requirements.

The Independent Inquiry Flag is the campus‐wide requirement most directly aligned with the requirement that all graduates of the university participate in the process of inquiry. Courses that carry the Independent Inquiry Flag challenge students to integrate skills and knowledge they have acquired over the course of their undergraduate careers. Students use these skills and expertise to create something new and contribute meaningfully to their discipline. For a course to satisfy the Independent Inquiry Flag, at least one‐third of the course grade must be based on students’ independent investigation and presentation of their own work. The Quantitative Reasoning Flag, another campus‐ wide requirement, also provides students in many fields of study with analytical skills that extend beyond basic competence in calculation. These skills are critical for interpreting and applying research results and for designing future research efforts.

Within many undergraduate degrees and majors across the university, there are research methods or design courses that are intended to prepare students for research within the disciplines. The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) in the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) is an example of a program that prepares first‐year students for research with a research methods course in their first semester, then in subsequent semesters engages them in research connected with faculty research labs in CNS.

School of Undergraduate Studies

The university also offers many minors and certificate programs that provide students with perspectives and skills outside of their majors. The Bridging Disciplines Program (BDP) in the School of Undergraduate Studies (UGS), for example, involve students in undergraduate research experiences and course work focused on one of 16 different interdisciplinary topics. In addition to helping students enroll in unique sets of courses from different colleges and departments across campus, these innovative certificate programs provide individual advising and faculty guidance in inter‐ or trans‐disciplinary research through required connecting experiences. Since the inception of BDP certificates in 2002, more than 1,100 students have completed one of the certificates. This total is expected to more than double over the next 10 years.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) in UGS offers workshops designed to prepare students for participation in research. The OUR recently launched a Research Training Certificate, which allows students to earn an informal certificate after attending five approved workshops, with at least one workshop in each of three areas: research preparation, research methods, and research communication. The workshops, offered by OUR and UT Libraries, include topics such as developing ideas for independent research, poster design, research entrepreneurship, conducting and writing a literature review, infographics, and writing a research paper, among others.

Other Resources

Research Facilities

The availability of modern research facilities is one of the critical keys to attracting and retaining the very best faculty and students. At the university, this represents a significant challenge for all disciplines, especially STEM areas, as the campus physical plant is aging and there are limited footprints available for new construction. To provide the facilities necessary for the university to continue its quest to become the best public research university in the nation, the institution has adopted a comprehensive facilities strategy that includes a systematic maintenance plan for existing facilities that continue to

31 support its research mission, and a strategic program of modernization, repurposing, and replacement of facilities no longer able to support this mission.

Changes in research infrastructure are realized through constructing, renting/leasing, or renovating research space (see Tables 7, 8, and 9).

Table 7. Examples of Recent New Research Space Construction

Gross Square Completion Building Name Cost ($M) Feet (GSF) Date Norman Hackerman Building‐Vivarium‐Phase I $219.26 343,768 October 2014 Advanced Computing Building $20.00 39,891 May 2016 Engineering Education and Research Center $313.70 476,827 July 2017 Dell Medical School Health Discovery Building $158.93 264,428 August 2017 Total $711.89 1,124,914 Source: Office of Facilities Planning and Construction (OFPC), UT Austin

Table 8. Recent Research Space Renovation

Gross Square Completion Building Name Cost ($M) Feet (GSF) Date Welch Hall Renovation ‐‐ 1929 West Wing $34.77 61,623 August 2016 Total $34.77 61,623 Source: Office of Facilities Planning and Construction (OFPC), UT Austin

Table 9. Facilities Being Planned or Under Development Gross Square Occupancy Building Name Cost ($M) Feet (GSF) Date Energy Engineering Building $160.00 182,000 June 2021 Total $160.00 182,000 Source: Office of Facilities Planning and Construction (OFPC), UT Austin

Renovation of space is a continuing activity on campus as new types of research demand new configurations of space and new facilities, new laboratory features and equipment, new utilities, and furniture. While renovation does not necessarily create new space, it does provide new usable space that enhances the ability of faculty to conduct research. The 1978 wing of Welch Hall is undergoing renovation with a completion date of Spring 2020. For each new faculty hire in STEM disciplines, start‐ up costs range between $500,000 and $2 million. With 30 STEM hires per year, start‐up costs are likely to average $30 million per year. As such, laboratory renovations are an important component of providing adequate facilities for faculty research.

The University has used rental/leased space extensively over the years to house research centers such as the Center for Transportation Research, the Center for Space Research, and the Institute for Advanced Technology, among others.

A major resource for researchers at the university, as well as researchers worldwide, is the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). TACC is the home to the university’s unparalleled supercomputers, including Lonestar, Stampede, the recently christened world‐class Stampede2, and the leading‐edge Visualization Laboratory. These computing systems are dedicated to open science research and allow scientists and engineers to address complex and large‐scale issues. Scientists employ TACC systems to look at the origins of the universe, investigate the genetics of plants and animals, research minute details of earthquakes, test options for treating diseases, and create new visions in the arts and humanities. TACC currently is working on 196 research projects in 58 fields of science from 113 institutions and provides both software and hardware support for over a thousand scientists and engineers globally. Well over 35,000 individuals worldwide make use of TACC systems.

Another university‐wide research resource is the Animal Resources Center (ARC). ARC provides animal husbandry and veterinary consultation services, as well as training for all university research involving animal subjects. Approximately 10,000 to 15,000 laboratory animals are involved in university research each year. ARC employs the most efficient and up‐to‐date environmental controls for sanitation and animal health monitoring. It also has access to a diagnostic laboratory, two complete animal surgery suites, several darkrooms, controlled environment rooms, and a necropsy room. Facility users include the Departments of Anthropology, Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Biosciences, Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Psychology, as well as the College of Pharmacy.

Library Resources

Containing more than 10 million volumes, the library of the university is the fifth largest public academic library in the nation and is consistently ranked among the country's top 10 research libraries. The university’s many outstanding collections include the world‐renowned Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC) that houses 30 million literary manuscripts, one million rare books, five million photographs, and more than 100,000 artworks. Other notable campus collections include the Benson Latin American Collection, widely recognized as among the most significant collections of Latin American materials in the world; the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art with more than 17,000 works of art from Europe, the United States, and Latin America; and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History with its extensive archival, artifact, and library collections documenting Texas and U.S. history. The Texas Memorial Museum houses the Texas Natural History Collections, including the non‐vertebrate paleontology collections and the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory.

Peer comparisons provide one of the best measures of resource adequacy. For large research universities, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) provides the longitudinal statistical data that enable peer comparisons. The 2015 list of holdings of ARL member institutions ranks the University of Texas Libraries (UT Libraries) as the ninth largest among its 125 members. These collections are housed in 12 separate library and archival collections administered collectively by UT Libraries and in three outstanding research centers with separate administrative lines – the Center for American History, the Jamail Center for Legal Research, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC). In 2015, investment by The University of Texas in library materials was more than $22 million, earning a ranking of tenth among ARL members.

The library collections are managed through close consultation between faculty and UT Libraries subject specialists to ensure that library resources meet the teaching and research needs of the university. The

33 acquisition of materials is managed by the Academic Engagement Division and includes both formal collecting policies and statistical analysis of the collections.

UT Libraries provides access to hundreds of online databases supporting every academic program at the university, as well as more than 800,000 e‐books and access to more than 85,000 e‐journals. UT Libraries uses the latest web scale discovery and OpenURL linking technologies to provide immediate and seamless access to high‐quality electronic resources from around the world. Robust off‐campus access to these licensed resources is provided through the campus secure electronic ID and the implementation of EZProxy. Enhanced access to digital information is assured through licensing arrangements, often in concert with other members of The University of Texas System, that deliver millions of pages of electronic full text directly to the desktops of the university community.

UT Libraries are part of resource‐sharing consortia that greatly expand the purchasing power and access to scholarly content available to university students and faculty members. The University of Texas System digital library contracts allow cost avoidance totaling millions of dollars in savings for online content. UT Libraries is also a member of TexShare, the state library program, which allows cost avoidance of more than $100,000 for online content. UT Libraries is a member of the Greater Western Library Alliance consortium that allows it to borrow materials UT researchers would not otherwise have access to while avoiding tens of thousands of dollars in interlibrary loan fees. It participates in the Research Library Cooperative Program with the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. This program is an agreement to share circulating collections. UT Libraries is also one of five patent and trademark depository libraries in Texas, part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which provides access to government documents. All of these consortia greatly increase the resources available to university researchers.

In order to ameliorate sustained inflation in the cost of scholarly information resources, UT Libraries participates in several open access initiatives aimed at reducing access costs of scholarly publications. Open access memberships include arXiv, Knowledge Unlatched, and the HathiTrust Digital Library which provides UT scholars and students with access to more than 14 million full‐text volumes, including more than 500,000 volumes from the Benson Latin American Collections.

UT librarians also provide a robust suite of scholarly publishing support services including individual consultations; research data services; and classes and workshops on varied issues, including copyright, digital asset management, and data curation. UT Libraries provides digital stewardship services to faculty and campus units by providing repository services (Texas Scholarworks, Texas Data Repository), data management planning services (Research Data Services), and alternative publishing platforms (through the Texas Digital Library open journals service). The Texas Scholarworks digital repository service provides open, online access to the university's research and scholarship in order to disseminate and raise the visibility of UT research, preserve these works for future generations, promote new models of scholarly communication, and help deepen community understanding of the value of higher education.

Complementing Texas Scholarworks, UT Libraries coordinates Research Data Services (RDS) to address the growing need for data management plans. Developed in partnership with the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and Information Technology Services (ITS), RDS includes an informational website and a coordinated strategy for helping address the unique data needs of university researchers. The Texas Data Repository is a platform for publishing and archiving datasets (and other data products)

34 created by faculty, staff, and students at Texas institutions of higher education. It is built in an open‐ source application called Dataverse, developed and used by Harvard University.

The university was a founding member of the Texas Digital Library (TDL), a statewide consortium managed by four Texas members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) – The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, the University of Houston, and Texas Tech University. These institutions have come together to provide a shared digital infrastructure for supporting the scholarly activities at the four schools, plus affiliate member institutions throughout Texas. TDL serves as an open access repository for research output as well as instructional materials, all of which will be available to both scholars and the general public. TDL developed and operates an electronic thesis and dissertation management system employed by the university and a wide body of universities across the country. The TDL is also involved in the nationwide development of a Digital Preservation Network that will provide multiple formats for storing research data, papers, reports, and other products across a number of geographic locations in the United States.

To facilitate the university’s increased focus on cross‐disciplinary research, UT Libraries has implemented several initiatives designed to more effectively integrate professional librarians in the research ecosystem and to provide faculty and graduate student researchers with innovative facilities and services that foster research collaboration. Subject‐specialist librarians have been embedded with Bridging Barriers to ensure that these high‐level research efforts have effective and cutting‐edge access to, and advice on, the latest information resources. UT Libraries has worked closely with the Dell Medical School to provide seamless access to existing information resources and to maximize benefit to campus of additional materials required for the medical school. LLILAS Benson, an innovative partnership between UT Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts, aligns the Benson Latin American Collection and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) under a unified management team to create research synergies across the university’s Latin American librarians and scholars.

UT Libraries has opened several new spaces in library facilities that are intended to support and encourage collaborative research. The Scholars Commons in Perry‐Castañeda Library (PCL) provides graduate students with dedicated space for collaborative work and a data lab with digital tools and support services for digital scholarship, data analysis, and scholarly communication. The Foundry Makerspace, a joint project of UT Libraries and the College of Fine arts, is open to faculty, students, and staff across campus interested in exploring the interface between design, technology, and research practice. The Learning Commons, housed in PCL, builds off a collaboration between UT Libraries and the University Writing Center to provide research and writing advice and assistance to undergraduate and graduate students through a variety of services, including consultations, interactive instructional sessions in technology‐rich teaching labs, and a full‐featured media lab supporting digital scholarship research projects.

Graduate Student Support

The Graduate School administers a graduate fellowship program that distributes more than $12 million annually to students across academic programs. The majority of funds are awarded on a decentralized basis whereby the colleges and schools receive an award allocation and decide how best to strategically use the funds. For example, some units may choose to focus on recruitment awards while another unit may opt to focus on supporting enrolled students. In this way, the award size can be tailored to meet the different needs across the colleges and schools. In addition to these funds, each college, school, or department administers additional funds for teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and

35 fellowships. The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost provides resources for tuition benefits for graduate students. While more than half of all graduate students receive some kind of financial support, the percentage of doctoral students receiving support is much higher. Financial support includes employment as a teaching assistant or assistant instructor (which entails a tuition assistance benefit), employment as a graduate research assistant, graduate school fellowships, and external fellowships.

The Graduate School continually monitors the level of funding provided by peer and aspirational peer institutions and endeavors to exceed or match these levels. In recent years, the university has emphasized making multi‐year commitments to be more competitive with peers and to recruit the very best students to UT Austin. For example, Graduate School fellowships have been restructured to provide more five‐year financial packages than in the past. The William C. Powers Fellowships awarded by the Graduate School provide funding for years one, four, and five while years two and three are funded at the departmental level through teaching assistantships and graduate research assistantships. Additionally, in recent years, many graduate programs have reduced the size of their programs, allowing them to offer fewer fellowships at more competitive levels. Increased success in grant applications, associated with the caliber of new faculty hires, is also anticipated to provide opportunities for enhanced support for graduate research assistants.

Access to health insurance benefits is an important consideration for graduate students and their families. Following the Texas Legislature’s passage of SB‐29, graduate students with fellowships of more than $10,000, who elect to pay the premium, may access the university’s group employee health benefits.