At the Board of Regents meeting on December 7, 2023, Vice President for Research and Innovation Shashank Priya highlighted the continued growth of the UMN research enterprise, noting that external sponsored research awards to the University remain over $1 billion and the University has risen year-over-year from 14th to 12th among US public universities in the latest National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development (NSF HERD) survey rankings, which measures overall research funding.
In keeping with the new name of his department, the Research and Innovation Office (RIO), Priya outlined how the University is on target for annual startup company creation, having launched 23 in 2023 with a goal of launching 25 in 2025. The University also saw an increase in research sponsored by business and industry and was 18th in the US for the number of patents awarded.
Looking ahead, VP Priya wants to grow UMN research expenditures from $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion by 2030. To achieve this vision, RIO held a Research 2030 workshop last spring and identified 14 high impact research themes, which provide a framework for growing the research enterprise. He announced two initiatives that RIO is helping to catalyze that draw on these themes, a Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation Center and a Sustainable Development Goals Geodesign Consortium.
As he did last year, VP Priya highlighted national security research as an area of growth opportunity for the University, outlining some initial recommendations from a faculty-led task force on the subject that met in summer and fall. Priya is bringing these ideas before leadership in the University Senate and the associate deans for research from the University’s colleges and campuses, and he hopes to organize several academic topic-based workshops in the spring for interested scholars.
Priya said RIO is also working to grow and strengthen research capabilities, including renewing and modernizing the University’s research infrastructure, aligning support for research services to meet the growth of the research enterprise, and reducing the administrative burden faculty face in carrying out research projects.
To advance technology commercialization, VP Priya introduced the new Discovery to Impact program, a “go-big” vision to maximize the impact of UMN innovation and startups over the next five years. This program seeks to offer gap funding, capital investment, and increased mentorship to help researchers develop promising inventions and get them to market to deliver higher impact. He also underscored RIO’s commitment to growing international research partnerships and strengthening relationships with federal labs.
On the UMN Research Statistics page, you can find links to the video of VP Priya’s presentation, presentation slides, as well as the printed 2023 Annual Report, a Research At-A-Glance summary, Technology Commercialization Statistics, and the 2023 Annual Report on Technology Commercialization.