When speaking in public, it’s not unusual for Chancellor Kent Syverud to reference Syracuse University’s “R1” designation. In his 2019 “Winter Message,” he spent six and a half minutes of a roughly 25-minute speech discussing the classification and major research programs at SU.

The term R1, or “Research 1,” may seem like a mundane, scientific term. But it’s been a driving force behind many of SU’s major strategic decisions, related to academic research, over the course of the last three years.

SU recently retained its R1 ranking, a top-level research designation, in part by investing millions of dollars in various initiatives since 2015.

SU upped its spending on science and engineering research and development by more than $30 million in just three years, according to Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education data. That was between 2015 and 2018. SU also tripled its spending on non-science and engineering research and development in that same time period.

The Carnegie classification designated SU as an R1 level research university first in 2015. It retained the designation in 2018. SU’s R1 classification shows it has high research expenditures, doctoral degree conferrals and postdoctoral researchers, said Vice President for Research John Liu.

The doctoral degree-conferring universities with the highest research activity are classified by the Carnegie Classification system as R1, and schools with high and moderate research activity are classified as R2 and R3, respectively.

Of the United States’ 4,338 colleges and universities, only about 1,100 provide graduate education, and 423 of those are doctoral degree-conferring universities, Liu said.

SU recently pledged an additional $1 million in annual funding toward a new Center for Undergraduate Research and $750,000 to a graduate research program, Chancellor Kent Syverud said in his “Winter Message” earlier this month.

Both programs are fully funded by Invest Syracuse, SU’s $100 million initiative to improve academics, the student experience and financial aid. Invest Syracuse is also funding the university’s plan to hire 200 new faculty to pursue research.

That faculty hiring plan is just one of several recent examples noting a sprawling research support push that SU’s rolled out under the R1 designation.

There’s also a new graduate research program, called Research Excellence Graduate Funding Program, will fund about 30 doctoral students with an extra $750,000 annually. Jack Wilson, president of the Graduate Student Organization, said the program was designed to boost retention for graduate students, which currently sits at around 60 percent.

The grant funding could also help graduate students better afford attending SU, Wilson said. A survey conducted by GSO showed that the vast majority of graduate student employees earned below a living wage from their research stipends.

“Any funding to ensure that the students are able to afford to stay here is huge,” Wilson said.

Funding decisions were made for the REGF program, but they have yet to be announced, Liu said. Twenty-two departments applied for a piece of REGF funding, he said.

“All of the applications that we received were thoughtfully prepared and included a number of excellent ideas for growing doctoral degree conferrals and improving diversity and inclusion,” Liu said

Most fields SU conferred doctoral degrees in saw increases in the number of degrees conferred from 2010 to 2018, per Carnegie data.

New multimillion-dollar plans related to undergraduate research at SU are also in motion.

Cathryn Newton, who will lead the Office of Undergraduate Research, which Syverud discussed earlier this month, said the idea that grants are only available to students researching in STEM fields was a myth — students in all programs are encouraged to apply.

“To achieve our goals we have to be able to reach students of all ethnicities, we have to have students with disabilities and we have to have all of the inclusive groups on campus participate in this,” Newton said. “And that will be a measure of our success.”

The Office of Undergraduate Research will be located on the second floor of Bird Library. The office will offer thousands of dollars in research grants for undergraduates for summer and year-long projects.  

About 200 students are expected to receive those grants per year, Liu said, and the number may grow “as those funds are further leveraged.”

The Office of Undergraduate Research will also work with university resources to recruit students underrepresented in research to apply for grants.

Proposals are due at the end of February, and grant winners are expected to receive responses by March 31, Newton said. There will be another round of grants provided in the fall semester.

The undergraduate research program will act as a grant proposal adviser, a grant agency and an institutional resource to help students complete their research, Newton said.  Students can meet with faculty mentors and office staff to develop their proposals, she said, and SU is currently preparing educational programming to teach students how to write a winning proposal.

“Shouldn’t it become part of the Syracuse concept that nearly every student can do this during their four or more years here?” Newton said.

Published on January 30, 2019 at 1:46 am

Contact Kennedy: [email protected] | @KennedyRose001