GOAL: To cultivate excellent graduate and professional programs, and to advance the research and scholarly enterprise.

As a research university, The University of Iowa is dedicated to the discovery, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. Faculty, staff, and student research produces new knowledge, innovations, and creative works that improve our lives and our society. The University’s research and postbaccalaureate programs foster a rich, vibrant learning environment for all students, including undergraduates. Moreover, our graduate and professional programs prepare the next generation of scientists, scholars, artists, and faculty members to carry this crucial effort forward into the increasingly knowledge-intensive world of the future. In the next five years, we will seek to enhance existing and develop new programs of distinction that are central in these ways to our teaching, research, and service mission.

Strategy: Increase the number of graduate and professional programs ranked in the top ten by:

• Recruiting and retaining excellent faculty and research staff;
• Providing faculty and research staff with the research support appropriate at a comprehensive research university;
• Developing methods for identifying programs of emerging distinction that are central to improving the University’s stature;
• Identifying, through a University-wide reallocation process, financial resources to support excellence and emerging distinction.

Strategy: Improve the infrastructure and culture central to the growth of research, scholarship, and creative work, including interdisciplinary and international efforts, by:

• Ensuring the availability and robustness of information technology services and support required for extraordinary and day-to-day research, scholarship, and creative activity;
• Investing selectively in equipment that can serve the needs of multiple investigators;
• Streamlining the operations of the regulatory and administrative offices that govern and support the research enterprise;
• Identifying opportunities for investment at the intersection of existing University strengths and extramural funding opportunities;
• Adopting administrative structures and incentives that encourage strategic cross-unit collaborations;
• Facilitating national and international travel, communication, and collaboration.

Strategy: Enhance graduate and professional education by:

• Recruiting and retaining highly qualified and diverse students, and maintaining high standards for timely and successful completion of postbaccalaureate programs;
• Providing competitive financial support for graduate scholars and professional students;
• Establishing strong programs for postdoctoral scholars and professional trainees.

Indicators of Progress

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