Building on Success
SIF178 Building on Success
Project Manager: Ian Baucom
Approved: Spring 2021
This award is intended to extend the life of the following successful activities at UVA: Targets of Opportunity (ToPS), Cluster Hires, Environmental Resiliency Institute (ERI), and Global Infectious Diseases Institute (GIDI).
Project Dates: 7/1/2021 – 6/30/2026
Total Funding: $13,000,000
Executive Summary:
The University committed support from the Strategic Investment Fund to support various initiatives to further previous initiatives and build on UVA's recent success. These include:
- $11 million for faculty hiring through the Cluster and Target of Opportunity (TOPs) faculty hiring programs
- $2 million dollars to support two Pan-University Institutes, the Environmental Resilience lnstitute (ERI) and the Global Infectious Diseases Institute (GIDI).
Current Status: Active
Progress:
The SIF178 funds are being used for two purposes: to support the hiring of faculty in cluster areas of strategic importance to the University, and to support the continuation of two Pan-University Institutes: the UVA Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) and the UVA Global Infectious Diseases Institute (GIDI).
During the last year, SIF178 funds were used to hire four faculty members:
- One faculty member into a joint position between the Department of Environmental Science, College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), and the School of Data Science (SDS). The hire is formally part of the Environmental Resilience Cluster.
- Two faculty members in the Race and Inequality Cluster. One has a joint appointment between SDS and A&S, and the other is in the School of Medicine (SOM).
- One faculty member was hired in the SDS as part of the Data Analytics at Scale Cluster initiative.
The cluster hiring results over the life of the SIF178 grant are as
|
Cluster Title |
Approved |
Schools of Appointment |
Hired before FY2023 |
Hired during FY 2023 |
|
Race and Inequality |
1 |
A&S |
1 |
0 |
|
Education Policy |
1 |
SEHD, Baten |
1 |
0 |
|
Race and Inequality (Health disparities)* |
3 |
SEHD, SDS, SOM, A&S |
1 |
2 |
|
Cybersecurity |
2 |
ENGR |
2 |
0 |
|
Resiliency/Environmental Change |
2 |
ARCH |
1 |
1 |
|
Data Analytics at Scale |
2 |
SDS |
0 |
1 |
|
Total |
11 |
|
6 |
4 |
*The Provost added a position in response to a request from the new Dean of SOM
The SIF 178 funds can also be used to support the hiring of Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows into faculty roles. The Mellon Postdoctoral program was awarded by the Mellon Foundation to support the hiring postdocs that support the Race and Inequality Cluster; this is a program intended to help these scholars transition to professorial roles. The Provost committed $100,000 a year for three years to help departments who wished to hire Mellon scholars as faculty in the Race and Inequality Cluster; funds were set aside from SIF178 for this purpose. During the last year, one Mellon postdoc was hired in the Race and Inequality cluster.