New or revised policies that allocate resources

•Grants and Contracts Incentive Plan for Faculty Salaries (MS Word file)

• Forms Useful in Grant and Funding Activity from the Office of Research

• Policies on Funding from the Office of Research

CAFNR/Life Sciences Center Policies

• Narrative on RIF Allocation and Research Assessment on Grants (MS Word file)

• Life Sciences Center Research Assessment Calculation Sheet (Excel file)

The University of Missouri is an increasingly dynamic institution.  We’ve put in place new organizational structures such as Food for the 21st Century and now the Life Sciences Center. We’ve discussed adding and subtracting campuses, and are today discussing the possibility of differential tuition/fees and various scenarios for setting those rates. We are also exploring various incentives to reward excellence and achievement.

At the University of Missouri system level, debate continues over how to make the most of the four campuses and their strengths. The proposal of adding Northwest Missouri State University as a UM campus, and the recent renaming of Southwest Missouri State University has only deepened the discussion. Recent research on the impact of centralized state university systems reveals that centralization can improve both the quality and commitment of the state’s resources if done well. 

Work is under way to put in place incentives to make all of Missouri’s campuses (our UM system campuses and the regional universities) both more collaborative, but also more highly differentiated. Our College is certainly one of the elements that makes Mizzou unique in the state.

Within our own campus here in Columbia, we have been working on methods of allocating resources to what we do best. The resource allocation committee’s model (or RAC model) was developed to allocate state funding to the programs teaching the most students, but also to reward those programs that excel in quality and productivity. 

Though funds have been limited to do much in a bold way, the chancellor, provost, and deans have been making every attempt to adhere to the principles of the RAC model. Traditionally, university allocations are based more on history than performance. Mizzou, like many of our peers, is attempting to foster a collective will for excellence, even if it risks marginal programs. Allocation incentives and principles (such as RAC) are being studied nationwide as most universities are realizing that excellence under times of tight resources and competition will only come through tough administrative decisions made centrally.

Incentives are being proposed within CAFNR, too. Those CAFNR faculty that are housed in the Life Sciences Center (LSC) are perhaps on the front lines of change, as they deal with both CAFNR and LSC policies relating to the research incentive fund (RIF) as well as assessments made on grants that do not include indirect costs to operate the LSC (see polices in left column). And all CAFNR faculty are now considering how to deal with the new Grant and Contract Incentive plan that is a campus-approved policy to use grants and contracts to supplement faculty salaries given certain conditions. 

Each CAFNR division will draft its own guidelines on how to participate in this incentive, which (in some form) is available from most of our competing research universities. 

Thus, to the disbelief of some, our university is in a state of rapid change driven by the competition for students, research funding and public support. Just as most of us have found rewards far better than punishment to motivate change, so has the university in the development of appropriate incentives for encouragement of faculty/staff. As these policies are crafted and implemented within the UM System, Mizzou and CAFNR — their success will depend upon your input and participation. Don’t hesitate to contact your supervisor, division director or the dean’s office with your ideas.

Regards, John