SIF188A GCRI-BN: Grand Challenge Research Investment-Brain and Neuroscience. Faculty, WISE, Library, Entrepreneurship, and Future Opportunities.

Project Manager: Ian Baucom

BoV Approved: Summer 2022

Project Dates: 1/1/2023 – 12/31/2027

Total Funding: $24,000,000

Executive Summary

This project is part of the overall Grand Challenges Research Investment in Brain and Neuroscience and has four components:

Faculty hiring ($19.95M) – In partnership with the schools and the UVA Health System, we will provide starting resources to allow the schools to hire approximately 24 faculty members over the next 5 academic years.  Particular fields and specialties are targeted to provide expertise necessary to support and enhance the Grand Challenges research projects.  Salary support is provided on a step-down basis (100% year 1, 75% year 2, 50% year 3, 25% year 4, with the school covering the full cost in year 5 and beyond).  Startup packages will be split 50/50 with the schools.  Approximately 24 candidates will be hired in areas ranging from basic research to translational to clinical in a range of schools.  

A coordinating committee will coordinate the searches, recruiting, and integration of new faculty members into the research community and the Grand Challenges projects.  The UVA Brain Institute will help coordinate faculty integration.  

Deans Grand Challenge Opportunity Fund ($3.05M; $6.4M in total in combination with SIF 187A) – to provide resources for additional Grand Challenges research projects in Brain and Neuroscience that are proposed in FY23, FY24, or FY25.  Projects must be proposed by at least two deans, or a dean and an institute director, and meet the other Grand Challenges criteria.1

UVA Wise Fund ($500,000) – to provide resources for research collaborations between UVA and UVA Wise in Brain and Neuroscience.  Proposed collaborations must be supported by the provosts at both UVA Wise and UVA.

Library Resources ($500,000; $1M in total in combination with SIF 187A) – to provide funding to acquire and license crucial scholarly material, including journal subscriptions, data sets, databases, and other e-resources to support the Grand Challenge research projects.  These materials will be accessible to the entire UVA community, along with the faculty and students involved in the specific projects. 

Current Status: Active

Progress

Faculty Hiring

We have developed a committee to coordinate searches, recruiting, and integration of new faculty members into the research community and the Grand Challenges projects. We have established school plans for hiring specific Grand Challenges positions that will be reviewed annually. These plans include templates for wording for the searches, coordinating committee members to meet with final candidates and provide feedback to hiring committees and provost ensuring alignment with the overall Grand Challenges goals.

Deans Grand Challenges Opportunity Fund

We have engaged the deans, institute directors, and other stakeholders about Deans’ Opportunity fund through several venues. We have established the funding cycle and application protocols, ran a first round of applications and selected three projects in 2022-23 for investment. We additionally set up milestones and metrics and a review cycle for these and future projects.

UVA Wise Fund

We have engaged UVA Wise leadership, UVA deans, institute directors, and other stakeholders about the UVA Wise fund. We discussed having a set funding schedule, but ultimately determined an ad-hoc approach would be best for this unit. We have establish appropriate goals, milestones, metrics, and assessment materials for each selected project, but have not yet funded any projects.

Library

We are collaborating with faculty, library liaison, and stakeholders to identify resources. Identify recurring and one-time cost for resources. We are working on negotiating appropriate licensing agreement with publishers and/ or vendors. We are working to make the resources accessible in LIBRA and database A to Z list.