UCSD
CAMPUS NOTICE
University of California, San Diego
 

OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH

December 8, 2000


ACADEMIC SENATE MEMBERS
KEY ADMINISTRATORS/KEY SUPPORT STAFF

SUBJECT:  2002-03 State Budget Research Initiatives

The Office of the President has once again invited the campus to submit up to five statements of major research initiatives for possible inclusion in the 2002-03 Regents' Budget request. This is the third year in which the Office of the President has worked with campus faculty and administrators to develop a set of funding requests to obtain State funding in support of high priority research over and above the State support we receive in connection with enrollment growth. This year we are advised that funding for initiatives may be for one-time funding (for periods of up to five years), a mix of one-time and permanent funding, or for permanent funding. Faculty are encouraged to develop statements that are responsive to these guidelines.

In the 2000-01 State Budget Act, $12 million dollars of permanent funding was awarded to UC to support graduate students in computer science, engineering, and related fields ($5 million), California-Mexico collaborative research ($5 million); and coastal environmental quality ($2 million).

In the 2001-02 Regents' Budget request to the State, $22 million dollars in permanent funding is being requested for the following high-priority initiatives: Graduate student support for research in engineering, computer science and related fields ($5 million); Environmental Science ($5 million), with $3 million to upgrade the state's system of environmental field stations, and $2 million to study energy and environmental quality; Integrated pest management of invasive species ($3 million); Public health needs ($6 million), including $2 million for child and adolescent health, $2 million for global health challenges, and $2 million for research on nondegenerative diseases; and California demographic change research ($3 million).

The research priorities submitted by San Diego last spring for the 2001-02 Budget were human development, immigration, nanostructured magnetism, biomedical engineering, genomic complexity, and observing and predicting natural disasters. These were considered by the Office of the President in conjunction with requests by the other campuses and resulted in the present request in the Regents' Budget.

The Office of the President is soliciting ideas for research initiatives that meet the following criteria:

  • The research topic is recognized as high priority to the State of California by its legislative and executive lawmakers. High priority may be defined in terms of contributions to economic growth and job creation or in terms of contributions to societal health and well-being.

  • The research topic is long-term, multidisciplinary, and of high scientific and scholarly interest to UC faculty.

  • UC possesses and identifies the faculty expertise and intellectual resources that are collectively the best in the world to address the topic.

  • The topic is not being effectively addressed by others, and UC is uniquely positioned to do so.

    In addition, we believe the ideas that UCSD forwards to the Office of the President should:

  • Be a high priority for the campus.

  • Potentially involve a large number of UCSD faculty and students and be of interest to faculty and students at other UC campuses.

    Faculty with ideas that meet the above criteria are encouraged to work with other faculty, their department chairs, and deans in developing the ideas.

    A one to two page statement of the idea should be forwarded to your dean (or deans if the research involves faculty from more than one division), with copies to your department chair, Vice Chancellor for Research Richard Attiyeh (0003), and the Committee on Research (0002) by Monday, January 29, 2001.


                                                    Richard Attiyeh
                                                    Vice Chancellor for Research
                                                    Dean of Graduate Studies

                                                    Stefan Tanaka, Chair
                                                    Committee on Research