DHS STRATEGIC PLAN FOR RESEARCH
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To Increase Research Productivity & Improve External Funding for Research
DHS’s research mission is to create a sustainable culture of inquiry that advances our position as leaders in the health professions through basic, translational, interdisciplinary, and participatory scholarly endeavors.
Goal Area #1 Infrastructure for Administrative Oversight
The current organizational efforts to promote and track research and scholarly activity will continue to be promoted throughout the academic year 09-10.
Objective 1.1. Barbara Bain will remain on staff and organize and provide a college-wide research mentoring program.
Objective 1.2. Scholarly activity within the following domains will be tracked through annual evaluation; listed on the college website, May 1 of each year, by refereed publications, refereed presentations, invited addresses, books, grant submissions, and chapters; and published in the DHS Annual Report.
Objective 1.3. Research Day will be organized and funded, and department participation will be tracked.
Objective 1.4. DHS participation in other research venues on campus will be tracked through the annual evaluation process and published in the college Annual Report.
Objective 1.5. Statistical consultants and editors will continue to be funded at FY 2008 level.
Objective 1.6. A listing of research interests and expertise will be developed for each faculty member on campus and posted on the DHS website by September 15, 2009.
Objective 1.7. The departments of the DHS will engage in clinical, laboratory, and population based research in translating research into general practice.
Task 1.7.1. Sixty percent of the DHS departments that submit the required report of scholarly activity will show at least one (attainable) example of scholarly work demonstrating applied research by December 15, 2009 and each year thereafter.
Task 1.7.2. DHS staff will develop a form to collect annual data by May, 2009.
Task 1.7.3. Using historical data from OSP, DHS staff will test the usability of the form (a pilot test with actual data will give us some understanding of tool effectiveness).
Task 1.7.4. A Department Chair/Program Director’s meeting will be held by September 15, 2009 that will demonstrate how to use the form.
Goal Area #2 Relevant, Appropriate and Applicable Locally Developed Plan
All academic programs and/or departments in DHS will develop strategic plans to increase scholarly activity and improve external funding of research activity by February 16, 2009.
Objective 2.1. All program/department plans will include:
- Measurable annual targets to track increases in research and grant submission.
- Measurable activity directed toward interdisciplinary research and/or grantsmanship.
- Measureable participation of students/residents in research activity.
Objective 2.2. Complete plans will be attached to the DHS Research Strategic Plan and submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by March 6, 2009.
Goal Area #3 Strengthen Capacity for Research
The majority of faculty in DHS currently are non-tenure track with primary responsibility assigned to teaching and clinical supervision. A concerted effort needs to be made to increase the number of tenure-track lines across programs in the DHS.
Objective 3.1. Increase tenure-track faculty within the college by 2% over 5 years.
Task 3.1.1. Research workload units will be reflected in goals articulated for academic year 2009 in all faculty evaluations submitted by March 31, 2009.
Task 3.1.2. Each program will calculate the ideal mix of tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty need to efficiently meet accreditation and curricular requirements.
Objective 3.2. Beginning Spring, 2009, new hires into vacant positions will emphasize research and external funding capacity of applicants.
Task 3.2.1. Vice President for Research will interview all new tenure-track applicants.
Objective 3.3. Faculty in each department will be reviewed by March 1, 2009 and adjusted to reflect the workload units assigned to teaching, research, and service. Tenure-track faculty will be expected to devote a minimum of three workload units to research.
Objective 3.4. Tenure and promotion guidelines for tenure-track and clinical faculty will be reviewed during the 2009-2010 academic year. Guidelines will be changed to reflect an increased emphasis on research for tenure-track faculty.
Objective 3.5. Change indirect policy to reward primary investigators.
Task 3.5.1. During the 2009-2010 academic year, DHS will propose a change in the Indirect Fund Distribution Policy to increase reward for primary investigators.
DHS Evaluation Plan
Phase I: 2009 – 2010 Process Evaluation
Phase II: 2011-2013 Outcome Evaluation
The DHS research mission is to create a sustainable culture of inquiry that advances our position as our position as leaders in the health professions through basic, translational, interdisciplinary, and participatory scholarly endeavors
In order to do so, the DHS Research Strategic Plan was created to lead the college toward that mission. Three goal areas were identified as the ongoing areas that are necessary for that sustainability. As guiding principles, these goals remain a constant over the years. To be actionable, a set of time sensitive objectives were established to cover the next two year period of 2009 and 2010. As presented in our Strategic Plan, the goal areas are:
- Goal Area #1 Infrastructure for Administrative Oversight
- Goal Area #2 Relevant, Appropriate and Applicable Locally Developed Plan
- Goal Area #3 Strengthen Capacity for Research
Process Evaluation: Our evaluation plan is based on the Logic Model provided in the DHS Strategic Plan. The objectives that are presented in 2009-2010 offer indicators for “process” evaluation. They are process markers or benchmarks that need to be accomplished to set the ground work. In our Logic Model, you will find that they are identified as “Activities” or “Tasks.” We plan to monitor this progress through the efforts of our annual report. Annual monitoring will enable us to make course corrections as needed and also because of the nature of the department by department format.
Outcome Evaluation: The logic of the plan states that if we accomplish all of the tasks, it should lead to the attainment of short term and then later, long term outcomes. However, we all know that “activity” does not necessarily correlate with desired outcome. This will be PHASE II of the evaluation plan. It will require DHS to look at the more nebulous short term and long term outcomes that are not as easily measurable. For example, a short term outcome is “clear defined lines of accountability and expectations.” The proof of outcome attainment requires faculty input, perhaps in a survey. Likewise, a stated desired long term outcome is to have “a recognizable and vibrant research program that adds to the current body of knowledge.” A measurement of this requires more than faculty reports. It requires external feedback from the greater academic and professional community. Therefore, measurement of success or outcome attainment is not insular, but rather, expansive.
Phase II evaluation will be developed in 2010 to identify the indicators and the data instruments to measure those indicators. The three goal areas described above will remain intact but instead of looking at tasks alone, we will be evaluating outcome attainment. However, we will continue with the process monitoring of activities through the annual report. Objectives for PHASE II will be revisited and will take into account what progress has been made toward achieving those objectives in the 2009-2010 period.
This will maintain the dynamic oversight and learning environment that we wish to create.