NJIT will achieve a national and international presence in research. The faculty of NJIT will be engaged in increasing knowledge in their respective fields by participating in innovative, prominent research and creative work. The university will provide the necessary and full support administratively, technologically and materially in order to assist the faculty in achieving their full professional potential. To inspire the most creative innovative research, multidisciplinary approaches will be supported and facilitated.
OBJECTIVES
FACULTY ROLES IN RESEARCH—To foster increased faculty participation in scholarly research and creative endeavors with an emphasis on collaboration.
Increase Participation of Current Faculty in Research
- Develop policies that encourage research, such as the sharing of indirect income among primary investigators and academic units. This will provide financial flexibility to research projects and improve faculty morale.
- Increase efforts to fully recover associated research expenditures from funding sources. This will increase resources available for research reinvestment.
- Establish a competitive internal seed-funding program for innovative research that is less likely to be supported through traditional processes. This will increase creative scholarship at the university and the potential for external funding.
- Re-engage faculty not currently active in scholarly research by integrating them into existing or emerging projects. This will increase research capacity.
Integrate Research into the Curriculum
- Advance faculty research in conjunction with academic curriculum content. This will help build a community of researchers that includes graduate students and, in some cases, undergraduate students.
- Develop a faculty research lecture series open to all students. This will have curricular implications such as fulfilling seminar course requirements in graduate degree programs.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH ENTERPRISE—To strengthen a research organization that supports, facilitates and promotes faculty research success.
Foster Regional, National and International Collaboration
- Strengthen collaboration among researchers at NJIT and with other universities in the region, particularly Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. This will enhance the range of NJIT’s research enterprise.
- Support international collaborative research and exchange programs. This will promote innovative scholarship, global leadership and visibility.
Improve Communication
- Disseminate grant and fellowship opportunities to members of the university community and facilitate faculty collaboration. This will promote increased grant and fellowship applications, more competitive proposals and multi-investigator research opportunities.
- Communicate NJIT researcher accomplishments in obtaining grants and fellowships, publishing research results and delivering significant research outcomes. This will improve the NJIT research image and disseminate the information needed to generate future collaborations.
Support Research
- Refine and streamline the administrative infrastructure for research support, integrating grant management and accounting operations. This will simplify the administrative processes associated with all research.
- Offer training and support in grant-proposal design and preparation. This will advance success by developing more research ideas into competitive proposals, thereby increasing the number of awards.
- Develop searchable databases of all records of research awards, reports, specialized expertise and resources available on the campus. This will provide researchers access to information on research expertise, facilities and equipment, as well as enhance collaboration and productivity.
- Improve the NJIT research grant management and accounting information systems to more accurately and completely reflect actual research activities. This will ensure that projects with multiple investigators give all participants appropriate credit.
- Reserve the “center” designation for consistently successful research initiatives and develop productive labs into centers. This will strengthen collaboration and enhance productivity.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH—To take a leading research role in three emerging areas of multidisciplinary research: data science and information technology, nexus of life sciences and engineering and sustainable systems.
Adopt Multidisciplinary Academic Research Approaches
- Promote multidisciplinary research. This will support collaborative teams of researchers to find innovative solutions to research problems while increasing external funding and scholarly publications.
- Assure recognition and reward for faculty engaged in multidisciplinary research and collect the information needed to track multidisciplinary activities. This will promote collaboration by changing the incentive structure.
- Integrate doctoral students into multidisciplinary research efforts and encourage multidisciplinary dissertation committees. This will give graduate students important career experiences.
- Provide teaching assistants funding across departmental and college lines. This will allow graduate students to expand their range of research.
- Facilitate teaching across disciplinary boundaries. This will create opportunities for faculty to teach classes related to their multidisciplinary research agendas.
ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS—To expand innovative reach and forge business relationships that provide local and state industries with critical technical assistance and support for workforce preparedness and training programs through the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) and the Enterprise Development Center (EDC).
Cultivate Private Sector Partnerships
- Engage the private sector through the university’s nonprofit corporation, NJII. This will advance the development and commercialization of intellectual property.
- Encourage faculty to engage in entrepreneurial activities on behalf of the university. This will expand the application of research outcomes.
Serve as a Catalyst for Regional and National Economic Growth
- Capitalize on state and federal funding to develop large-scale technology projects. This will increase the university’s impact in technology transfer and innovation.
- Expand the university’s presence in state, regional and national economic development activities. This will contribute to job creation and visibility.
FACILITIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE PLANNING—To optimize existing facilities and equipment while developing new infrastructure to support research.
Optimize Start-up Processes and Resources
- Provide flexibility of start-up funds usage for all new hires throughout their pre-tenure period in support of their scholarly work. This will aid young faculty in establishing research careers.
- Assure new faculty fully functional research laboratory space upon appointment. This will jump-start new faculty research careers at NJIT.
Assess and Prioritize Infrastructure
- Assess infrastructure and document capacity to determine ability to support scholarly research. This will yield an understanding of NJIT’s research capability and the potential for collaboration with other universities and research organizations.
- Optimize existing infrastructure use and the prioritizing of needs for new facilities, equipment and institutional infrastructure. This will facilitate current and future research initiatives.
Share Facilities and Services with Council for Higher Education in Newark (CHEN) Institutions, EDC’s Incubator Companies, University Heights Science and Technology Park (UHSTP) and Industry
- Expand shared-use facilities, equipment and institutional support infrastructure with Rutgers-Newark, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Essex County College, EDC and UHSTP. This will advance research by increasing access to facilities and encouraging joint proposals and projects among these institutions.
- Collaborate with industry to offer faculty and students access to equipment not otherwise available on campus. This will increase capacity and the range of scholarly research.
The Vice Provost for Research and the Senior Vice President for Technology and Business Development are responsible for overseeing the implementation of strategies and tactics under Strategic Priority Three. Their success will be measured by the following Key Performance Indicators:
