As part of the University’s plan to ramp up research operations, Vice President for Research Leo M. Chalupa has announced that George Washington will focus on six initial research areas in the coming year.
Autism, computational biology, science policy, sustainability, neglected diseases and energy were selected based on input from the faculty and deans.
“These are areas that the deans felt we should target,” Dr. Chalupa says. “We already are leaders in these fields with top researchers who are team players.”
A collaborative approach is critical, he adds, given that these six areas are multidisciplinary and therefore cross school and college boundaries. These sectors continue to hold tremendous potential for the University, he says.
Starting with these six focus areas is “a way to jumpstart the research operation at George Washington,” Dr. Chalupa says. He expects that the University will hire more expert faculty members in these subjects in the coming years. This effort “will make us preeminent in very important areas,” he says.
For each of the six focuses, an internal GW committee is providing recommendations for future activities. These plans then are being reviewed by an external committee of experts, who will provide feedback on plan implementation. The autism plan is the furthest along, and then the others will develop in the order listed above.
“We can then use this same paradigm for other areas,” Dr. Chalupa notes, stressing that these six subjects are only the initial research focuses. The University will move to expand others later.
All of these six areas have a large potential for federal funding. In addition, the attraction of more highly skilled faculty researchers will enhance the student experience at GW by offering more opportunities for learning and research assistantships. “The first priority is the intellectual endeavor,” Dr. Chalupa says, from which all members of the GW community benefit when research is elevated.