After six town hall meetings featuring the three finalists, the search committee will give its recommendation to Executive Vice President and Provost Lauren Robel.
Michael McGinnis, David Reingold and ?Michael Wade are the ?candidates.
The selected candidate will be responsible for overseeing current internal funding programs, developing new external funding sources, overseeing current research development services and fostering high-quality research, according to the website of the executive vice president for university ?academic affairs.
After collecting feedback on the three candidates, the 18 search committee members will evaluate the feedback and compile a report for Robel and IU Vice President for Research Jorge José by December, said search committee chair Beth Plale, a School of Informatics and Computing professor. Robel and José will then make the ?final decision.
“We are certainly looking for someone who has an understanding of IU and its organization,” Plale said. “The assumption is that the candidate will have an understanding of IU and its ?organization.”
To find someone who meets that qualifications, the search committee conducted an entirely internal search, Plale said.
“We are certainly looking for an experienced researcher and a good communicator,” Plale said. “We are looking for someone who is familiar with the external funding process because external funding is important to IU. And we are looking for someone who has demonstrated good leadership skills and ?experience.”
Michael McGinnis
McGinnis currently serves as a professor in the department of political science and as a senior research fellow of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.
The Ostrom family founded the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis as a hub for cross-disciplinary research into a wide range of questions related to natural resources and social order, ?McGinnis said.
“I would like to take my experience with cross-disciplinary research to the next level to help ensure that IU will continue to support new collaborations and strengthen existing collaborations,” he said.
McGinnis said his goals include encouraging undergraduate and graduate research, seeking external funding sources, lowering the costs of forming new research teams and expanding global research ?connections.
Both IU’s strategic plan and IU-Bloomington’s strategic plan encourage faculty to identify multiple grand challenges, major and widespread problems that are best identified and tackled by multidisciplinary teams of researchers, during the next ?few years.
These grand challenges will be identified through competitions between teams of faculty.
When asked about his approach to grand challenges, McGinnis said he would hope to incorporate contributions from faculty with expertise in the arts and humanities.
David Reingold
Reingold currently serves as a professor and the executive associate dean for the School of Public and Environmental ?Affairs.
SPEA is unusual, Reingold said, in that, between environmental affairs, public affairs and arts management, it combines the natural sciences, the social sciences and, to an extent, the arts and humanities in one school.
“SPEA, in many ways, spans a variety of aspects of the university,” he said.
Reingold said his goals include encouraging undergraduate and graduate research, reducing teaching loads and expanding research on all campuses without diminishing research at the Bloomington campus.
When asked about his approach to grand challenges, Reingold said he would hope to encourage not only the winning teams but also the losing teams, as he believes that ideas of the losing teams may end up being more successful than the ideas of the ?winning teams.
He also said he would hope to incorporate contributions from faculty with expertise in the arts and ?humanities.
Michael Wade
Wade has served as interim associate vice president for research and vice provost for research since Sarita Soni retired from the position ?in May.
Wade said his goals include seeking external funding sources, encouraging risk takers and focusing on the ideas, rather than the dollars, behind the ?research.
When asked about his approach to grand challenges, Wade said that, while the grand challenges portions of the strategic plans encourage faculty to partner with partners outside of the IU community, he fears that many partners outside of the IU ?community are weak.
He proposes that staff from the office of the vice provost for research survey faculty on their ideas for research, as well as the progress they’ve already made on their ideas, and then bundle related ideas together and call the bundle a grand challenge, therefore encouraging faculty to find partners within the IU community.
Wade also said he would hope to incorporate contributions from faculty with expertise in the arts and ?humanities.
