DELTA RESEARCH CONSORTIUM a Network of Post-Secondary
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DELTA RESEARCH CONSORTIUM A Network of Post-Secondary Institutions in the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt Regions, with Public and Private Partnerships May 2015 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY We propose the formation of a Delta Research Consortium that will work to maximize collaboration and funding for positive and solutions-driven research in the Delta region. The consortium will initially consist of 4-year institutions in the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions as defined by the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), leadership of the Delta Regional Authority, local economic development experts, industry partners and philanthropic organizations. The consortium is committed to being: • Collaborative and inclusive of many: Building our shared capacity for engaging research and innovation across all sectors; • Innovative and entrepreneurial: Elevating faculty and student research, demonstrating to stakeholders the value and relevance of research in higher education; and • Inspiring and impactful: Committed to bringing our shared assets to bear on the significant social and economic opportunities and challenges in the Delta for meaningful impact. Consortium annual meetings will provide a forum for university research teams from various disciplines to network with each other and with private/public stakeholders; attract nationally recognized speakers and facilitators to convey and implement best practices for collaboration and impact; and develop robust faculty and student mentoring networks, with emphasis on the mentoring researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. The Delta 360 Assessment, to involve each consortium member, will provide on-going data for evidence-based decision making and financial investment in Delta region higher education and research enterprises. In addition to identifying infrastructure needs, the assessment will produce a large student-faculty-institution data set that will provide information on who succeeds, how they succeed, and how to ensure success. Research data generated by the consortium and Delta 360 Assessment will be housed in an online data repository, the Delta Commons, hosted by the Delta Regional Authority. Member institutions will collaborate to produce innovation around shared priorities, including but not limited to issues of: economic and workforce development, energy efficiency and sustainability, biomedical/public health, Delta culture/natural heritage, water quality and sustainability, food/agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and entrepreneurship. The assessment knowledge-base and outcomes of research projects will drive the Delta Research Consortium activities and pursuits and tie together Delta institutions in a synergistic transformation of practical research, education, and technology development for lasting economic impact. This initiative is a transformative, broad-reaching, high-impact endeavor. By developing and maturing interdisciplinary, multi-institution collaboration networks, research funding and capacity in the Delta will be substantially increased, creating new jobs, producing new technologies and ultimately propelling economic development forward. Contents White Paper.....................................................................................................................1 Invitation to DRC Leadership Summit, April 9-10, 2015..........................................5 Map of invited universities in Delta Regional Authority service areas.................6 List of invited universities............................................................................................7 Outcomes report from DRC Leadership Summit...................................................10 Interdisciplinarity and collaboration are hallmark characteristics of modern science. One of the strongest indicators of a robust and sustainable university research program is the development of research collaboration networks. Such networks require not just “buy-in”, but also the committed participation and leadership of champions at each level of university administration. They require the adoption of responsive administrative structures that are able to act with foresight and thoughtfully engage the challenges of multi-institution, interdisciplinary collaboration. Success of collaborative networks also depends on the ability of administrators to nurture an institutional paradigm shift away from risk-averse, insular academic “silos” toward shared language, values and “out of the box” thinking across disciplines and institutions. In the past decade, a decisive factor in the advancement of research at Arkansas State University (A-State) was the establishment of a five-member Arkansas Biosciences Institute (ABI) consortium, consisting of two medical training institutions, two state universities and one agricultural research entity. Despite these advances, a readily identifiable weakness in A-State’s research infrastructure is the lack of strong collaboration networks with other neighboring institutions, particularly those with greater student and/or faculty diversity. Thus, A-State invites regional colleges and universities to form a Delta Research Consortium (DRC) that will build regional infrastructure and economic development, expand pathways for student training and mentoring, and create collaborative, multi- institutional research teams. Consortium membership will is expected to initially consist of four-year institutions in the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions as defined by the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), and public/private stakeholders. A map of invited universities in DRA service areas is presented in Figure 1. Critical to the success of the DRC is that member institutions articulate a clear mission to grow and increase the diversity of the Delta’s highly skilled workforce through investment in infrastructure, student and faculty development, and collaboration networks. Commitment by institutional leaders and willingness to adopt nimble administrative structures is another key characteristic. 1 DELTA 360 ASSESSMENT A first step in the pursuit of institutional and regional change is to understand both ‘what is’ and ‘what needs to be.’ This will be fulfilled through a combined asset mapping and needs assessment (hereafter called Delta 360 Assessment). Member institutions will be encouraged to participate in this ongoing program to provide evidence for informed decision-making. The assessment organization and domains are given in Figure 2. The Delta 360 Assessment will allow researchers and policy-makers to evaluate the ecosystem of problems in the delta and utilize existing platforms to generate solutions, without duplicating efforts. Assessment findings will be disseminated in a publicly accessible data repository, the Delta Commons, hosted by the Delta Regional Authority. The DRA has created Today’s Delta, an online data repository, which could host DRC assessment findings and serve as a dissemination tool for DRC research and other outcomes. This novel assessment and database will substantially improve the ability of public and private entities to plan infrastructure and other investments in the Delta to yield maximum economic and educational impact. (Today’s Delta available at: http://dra.gov/ about-dra/research-and- data/.) DELTA RESEARCH CONSORTIUM PHASED APPROACH Establishment of the DRC will occur in three phases (see also Figure 1): DRC Guiding Team Formation and Consensus Building In November 2014, the leaders of the Delta Regional Authority and A-State research development office met to discuss collaboration around this initiative. It was agreed that the A-State research development office would take the lead in reaching out to universities throughout the region and other public/private stakeholders. A Guiding Team was formed, including research leadership from: Delta State University, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Memphis and University of Tennessee at Martin. Jonathan Bucki, of the Dendros Group, was retained as a consultant to facilitate a working summit of leaders from interested 2 universities and stakeholder groups. Financial commitments to support this meeting were obtained from DRA, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Ritter Communications and Hope Credit Union. University research officers from the 50 four-year universities presented in Figure 1 were contacted by phone and personally invited to attend a two-day DRC Leadership Summit. The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and optimistic. The summit was held on April 9-10, 2015 at Arkansas State University. Participants gathered from 23 universities and 12 other stakeholder groups, including local economic development leadership and state legislators. Over the two days, plenary sessions and workshops were designed to achieve the following objectives: • Launch the Delta Research Consortium; • Develop practical strategy teams and plan next steps; • Develop interest groups and plan next steps; • Increase cooperation, shared vision and trust among consortium members; and • Increase a sense of possibility and understanding of this opportunity. Prior to the summit, participants were asked to report areas of strength for their institution, areas in which they would like to expand, and institutional assets or resources that may be scaled-up and regionalized to benefit the broader consortium membership. It is expected that collaborations may develop around some or all of the following