NSF GRANTED – CENTRAL Conference

APLU Impact

• APLU, Alabama A&M University, NORDP, and ARIS will host an NSF-funded conference to determine how senior research leaders (SROs) are produced, the barriers they face, and opportunities for universities and associations to diversity and expand the nation’s pool of senior research leadership. 
• The outcomes of this conference will be shared with APLU members and the public in a report recommending the next generation of professional development programs and methods to increase the accessibility of this important role. 

APLU and its partners have been funded by the National Science Foundation’s Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Economic and Development(GRANTED) program to host a two-day conference titled “Charting & Expanding Needed Trails to Research Administration & Leadership (CENTRAL)” to understand the current needs and opportunities of growing and diversifying senior research leadership across the nation.   

The CENTRAL Conference will be held at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (AAMU) in Huntsville, AL on Monday, April 15^th and Tuesday, April 16^th, 2024. Attendees will be invite-only and be selected from subject matter experts from the participating associations; APLU, AAMU, the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP), and Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS).   

CENTRAL’s goals are two-fold: 

1. Identifying key paths that individuals take to arrive at senior research leadership roles, recognizing that the paths for diverse candidates have additional contexts. 
2. Identifying the roles that institutions and associations play in introducing individuals to the opportunities and barriers of pursuing research leadership and recruiting them to a career in senior research leadership and administration. 

Why is such a meeting necessary? The most comprehensive work surveying the prior background and career experience of senior research officers (Droegemeier et al. 2017), found disquieting results. The work surveyed 78 currently sitting research officers with a team limited to just APLU members. Less than 20% of SROs had previous SRO or strategic planning experience while 65% found developing strategic areas and teams to be the predominant knowledge needed for the job. Additionally, Droegemeier et al. (2017) found that most SROs intended to remain in the position less than six years, with a peak between four to five years in tenure.  

Since this foundational survey, APLU’s Council on Research (COR) has created its Research Leader Fellowship Program, resulting in highly attended and successful training workshops and webinars for APLU’s Assistant Vice President of Research community. The need for more work remains, as the nation requires a logic model that identifies the sources of individuals who fill this vital role in our nation’s research enterprise, and how best to deliver the professional development opportunities that they need at a national scale. 

CENTRAL Resources

The CENTRAL Conference was held at AAMU Huntsville, AL on Monday, April 15^th and Tuesday, April 16^th, 2024.  Attendees and speakers provided a rich discussion that fulfilled CENTRAL’s goals, and their discussions were synthesized into a proceedings report and executive summary for community use. 

CENTRAL Conference Executive Summary 

CENTRAL Conference Proceedings Report 

Key insights from the report include a map of the many interconnected leadership positions that often lead a candidate to senior research leadership, the skills they acquire along the way, and the barriers they encounter in hiring.  The goal is for the report to be used by professional development and hiring professionals to efficiently prepare and select the next generation of senior research officers by recognizing the many paths taken to this role. 

CENTRAL attendees also indicated a need to follow up on the Droegemeier et al. (2017) survey of over 70 senior research officers at public research universities.  The past decade has hosted many changes to the research enterprise, and the evolution of senior research leadership should also be studied.  APLU performed the recommended survey from October to December 2024, and results are currently under examination. 

This page will be kept updated on CENTRAL progress and its outcomes. To learn more about CENTRAL and other GRANTED convenings, please check the NSF GRANTED Convenings webpage.  If you have any questions, please email cor@aplu.org.  

CENTRAL is supported by a $99,800 grant from the National Science Foundation (No. 2324469).  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 

Questions? Write us at cor@aplu.org.