Garnering $303 million in external funding awards in 2007-2008, IUPUI faculty researchers exceeded all previous campus records and affirmed the university’s leadership as Indiana’s premier urban public research institution. An enhanced research infrastructure and leading-edge laboratories, along with new internal funding mechanisms, are helping to give IUPUI an edge in an increasingly competitive external funding environment. Expanded funding for graduate student assistantships in the Schools of Science and Liberal Arts is similarly intended to assist those schools in competing successfully for external grants and contracts.
Two initiatives in IUPUI’s Academic Plan capitalize on the campus’s strength in interdisciplinary research collaborations and draw on its proximity to state government and the local business community. Translating Research into Practice (TRIP), inaugurated in Fall 2007, recognizes IUPUI scholars who make a difference in people’s lives through interdisciplinary research that translates scientific or humanistic discoveries into practical solutions. The Signature Centers project, begun in 2006-2007, is providing seed money to 28 existing and new research centers with an interdisciplinary focus. Twenty-three of these centers are aligned with IUPUI’s health and life sciences mission. Centers are expected to become self-supporting after three years of internal support; already, some Signature Centers have reported major funding successes.
