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Organize the predominant research areas
of the new Biotechnology Building as an incubator, the Marshall
Institute for Interdisciplinary Research - "MITR"
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Establish the Institute as an
experimental model for advancing interdisciplinary research and the
genesis of intellectual property (IP)
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Develop an organizational and
administrative structure that is adaptive, self-organizing and
self-assembling with respect to novel research constellations that
optimize opportunity and catalyze new fundable research initiatives
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Create MITR as an academic entity that
promotes an earning culture, which is self-actualizing and sustainable
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The generation and commercialization of
Intellectual Property (IP) shall be a part of the Institute’s charter.
The commercialization enterprise will be a delegated responsibility area
separate from the Institute.
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Create a charter and conditions that
foster an organizational culture, which values and encourages
community/collective success – the institute members share in successes
but if the institute fails, everyone fails with it.
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Develop a Funding/Distribution Model
That is Self-Sustaining
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We need to establish a reasonable,
incentive-based formula for the redistribution of indirect costs (IDC’s)
and compensation recovery from grants.
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Reinvestment of funds earned through
competitive external contract and grant awards in MITR should be
maximized.
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Development and growth of endowment
resources is crucial to the long-term sustainability of this model. To
this end, recapturing compensation costs and lowering the draw-down of
endowment earnings whenever possible should be a goal in managing these
funds during the first decade of this program. This approach will
accelerate the endowment growth and the long-term sustainability of this
model.
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Establish this
entity (MITR) as a separate academic unit apart from the present
constellation of colleges and departments. Establish an organizational
framework for this enterprise that creates a separate, not-for-profit
academic/administrative entity within the University. It should have its
own promotion and tenure expectations/guidelines, the locus of tenure
should be entirely within the institute and non-transferable.
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Tenure within this entity – if this
enterprise fails, tenure and appointments dissolve
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12-month appointments with compensation
that is competitive nationally
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Defined Cost Recovery Plan
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These positions should be set up with
the donors and awarded with a sunset provision. The expectation is that
within five years, researchers will recover annually a minimum of 50% of
their total compensation from grants. Thereafter, MU will be responsible
contractually for only 50% of the future annual compensation of the
research professor. The recaptured compensation will become a fund pool
for research reinvestment in the Institute by the Institute/University
and the creation of new endowed research professorships. The president
of the University shall have final authority over the policy framework
for these funds. The Institute Executive Director will have the
discretion and responsibility for allocating these funds within the
Institute in accordance with these policies. This approach has the
potential to increase by 50% the number of endowed positions that the
institute will have at its disposal (principal researchers). These
latter endowment funds should be made available to the institute for
additional research staff (e.g., postdoctoral fellows, graduate
assistants, undergraduate students) as well as technicians and other
support staff. The concept espoused herein is to grow the financial and
personnel base of the institute, leveraging the public/private
investments in endowed professorships to expand the institute’s research
capabilities and capacity. The eventual $36 million private/public
investment (endowment) will yield ~$1.5 million in annual funds to
support research within the institute.
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Grant IDC distribution formula is an
important funding source for the Institute. An approved formula will
need to be developed that balances Institute and University priorities.
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The total pool of IDC+ recaptured
compensation dollars serves as corpus for new research cluster
development – a partitioning plan will be critical for fueling new
enterprise development
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Develop the Strategic Vision for
Research at MU
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Priority Goals
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Strategies for Accomplishing Goals
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Progress Indicators
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Determinants of Success
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Develop The Business/Funding Plan to
Support the Goals of the Strategic Vision/Plan
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Business plan for each goal
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Commission an “Economic Impact Study”
centering on the impact of this plan on regional economic development
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Endowed Research Professorships – Nine
(9) Professorships @ $4 million each
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Possibility of dollar-for-dollar state
match through public sources will be explored
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The endowments need to be established
with discretionary authority given to MU for each research professorship
so that if and when a position is vacant, MU has the discretionary
prerogative to hold the position vacant for up to a maximum of two (2)
years in order to accumulate endowment proceeds (earnings) and use the
accumulated funds to enhance the research enterprise – e.g., grow the
endowment corpus, research capital equipment purchases, etc.
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We need to model the endowment payouts
on a five year rolling average basis, especially during the start-up
phase to determine the timetable for filling the positions. One
objective may be to target the accumulation of sufficient proceeds to
help defray some/all initial start-up equipment costs with each
position.
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Nine (9) fully endowed positions are
targeted over the next two (2) years or less, if possible. This number
represents what is believed to be a critical mass of top-tier
researchers to develop the interdisciplinary constellations of the
Institute program. Projections indicate that this number will provide a
sufficient number of new positions required to jump-start and sustain
the research programs of the Institute. As new endowed professorship
positions are created, MITR can either add additional person-power to
existing programs or begin to assemble a team for launching new area of
research concentration.
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It is reasonable to expect that this
initial investment will lead directly to the generation of an additional
$10 million annually in new grant funding among these investigators
within five years (~$1 million annual direct funding per investigator).
Collectively, the institute conceivably will have the capacity to
generate $50 million in annual external research funding through grants,
contracts, commercialization and state/federal earmarked funding by
2012. Depending on IP commercialization, this enterprise may evolve to
$75 million operation annually within a ten-to-fifteen year time
horizon.
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Based on a 5:1 economic
impact-to-investment ratio, the Institute has the capacity to generate
cumulatively between $250-375 million in new spending through direct and
indirect job growth in the area.
