APLU, Partners Receive NSF Grant to Map Career Pathways of Vice Presidents of Research

Aiming to build capacity throughout the public research university enterprise, APLU, the Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University, the National Organization of Research Development Professionals, and the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society will map the career pathways of senior research officers in an effort to enhance the talent pipeline for research leaders at public universities. The National Science Foundation is funding the effort.

Next year, APLU and its partners will convene key stakeholders in the research ecosystem to map the career pathways of senior research officers, including on- and off-ramps in the leadership pipeline. The mapping will help identify barriers in the leadership pipeline and opportunities for expanding and diversifying the nation’s leaders. Titled Charting & Expanding Needed Trails to Research Administration & Leadership (CENTRAL), this NSF award will support a two-day conference to be held in April 2024 at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, AL. More details on this and other NSF GRANTED conferences can be found on the National Science Foundation’s website.

The senior research officer role is a highly customized one, sensitive to the local institutional environment and often requiring the incumbent to learn a host of new skills on the job. For example, at many institutions, the senior research officer is key to research development both strategically and for implementation at both institutional and faculty levels, as well as supporting new faculty.

The mapping conference will bring together a diverse set of experienced and aspiring leaders to address the project’s twin objectives. Participants will be selected to provide a cross-section of institutional types and research capacities, including Minority Serving Universities and Emerging Research Institutions, to benefit all institutional types in the future. The conference will examine how research officers are recruited and trained, the barriers research officers face in doing their job, and the elements of research leadership needed to advance research capacity.

The grant builds on the work of APLU’s Council of Research (COR), which convenes senior research officers around shared challenges and opportunities as they work to advance the research enterprise of public universities. APLU’s COR Research Leader Fellowship Program is designed to provide training and skill development to individuals who work closely in various capacities as or with the university’s chief research officer (vice presidents/vice provosts/vice chancellors for research), including those who aspire to transition into vice presidents of research positions in the future.