UofM Launches Memphis Research Ecosystem Leaders Program
Jan. 15, 2025 — The University of Memphis announced the inaugural cohort of the Memphis Research Ecosystem Leaders (MREL) program, a year-long initiative designed to help connect research leaders at the UofM who have seen success in their individual labs to researchers with strategic focuses to create large-scale transformational research ecosystems.
Some of the greatest research successes at the University of Memphis have been led
by multi-disciplinary, decentralized centers that convene experts to address topics
in collaborative, outcome-driven and responsive ways, including the NSF Industry-University Center for Electric and Autonomous Trucking (CEAT), Public Health – Informatics, Data, Equity, Analytics Systems (PH-IDEAS) and Center for Regional Economic Enrichment (CREE) as well long-standing centers such as the NIH-launched mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization, and Translation of Temporally-Precise
Interventions (mDOT Center).
According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), a research ecosystem refers to a network of interconnected individuals, organizations, resources and processes that work together to support and drive scientific research, encompassing everything from researchers themselves to research facilities, funding mechanisms and the broader societal context that influences research activities.
The cultivation of the skillsets fostering these ecosystems is often not intentionally developed but rather learned through experience over time. MREL will create a pathway for faculty to develop the skills needed to lead large research, ecosystem-level, efforts by providing training in strategic doing, ecosystem mapping, entrepreneurial skillsets, project management, communications, equitable team development and related programs. These faculty, all of whom have a track record of success with procuring funding through grant applications, will also work to cultivate funding from alternative sources, develop materials for executive and industry promotion and the process for procuring larger center-level grants from federal agencies.
In the inaugural cohort, 18 faculty members from the UofM will be joined by five faculty members from Jackson State University, Rust College and Lemoyne Owen College. The cohort will engage in monthly sessions supported by individual grants and research development consultation and taught by teams at the University of Memphis and partner institutions from across the country. The program is based on similar programs at Carnegie R1 Institutions and programs such as the NSF Leap-to-Large faculty training.
In 2021, the University of Memphis achieved Carnegie R1 status, recognizing it as one of the largest research institutions in the country. In September 2024, the UofM announced over $100M in research awards achieved in a single fiscal year, a record. Continuing to achieve that growth rate requires programs like MREL to be paired with the allocation of resources that help grow research development across campus. Faculty participants were nominated by their college leadership based on their research performance track record. Nominees had to be at least associate professors or higher and have a track record of publication success and grant funding.
MREL inaugural cohort members span from the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Herff College of Engineering, College of Education, College of Arts & Sciences, Loewenberg College of Nursing and Fogelman College of Business & Economics as well as partnerships with Jackson State University, Rust College and Lemoyne Owen College.
To learn more about this initiative, contact Research Development at researchdev@memphis.edu.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Trent Shadid
Director, Communications
tshadid@memphis.edu
(O) 901.678.3011