Peter Alfonso has served as UND's vice president for research since 2002. (Photo: Chuck Kimmerle/University Relations)

Making UND an "engaged research university": a two-way process of partnerships and reciprocity

EDITOR’S NOTE: UND Discovery asked Peter Alfonso, vice president for research, to discuss the concept of “engagement” in research, and to explore how this impacts the research enterprise at the University of North Dakota.

The theme for this year’s UND Discovery is “UND: an engaged research university.”

What do you mean by engagement?

The idea stems from the position taken by some in the private and government sectors about a decade ago that public research institutions were not properly receptive to societal needs. The increasing public view held by some at the time was that research universities were unresponsive to key issues facing our communities, states, and the nation. The Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities took on this issue and about five years ago introduced the concept of “university engagement” as opposed to the traditional “outreach” and “public service.”

There are significant distinctions, in my view, between the two concepts. Outreach and public service generally refer to a one-way process, where research institutions present their expertise to the public by various means.

Engagement, on the other hand, is a two-way process based on partnerships and reciprocity. For example, an engaged research university partners with the community in crafting initiatives that are marked by shared goals and agendas, by outcomes that are meaningful to both the university and the community, and by collaborative leveraging of university, public, and private funds.

The university research enterprise is an obvious major player in the engagement process, but so is the university’s basic mission of teaching and learning. Engagement will influence our university culture in ways that will enhance and broaden the student experience in our classrooms and in our laboratories.

Is UND an engaged university? Where are we in the evolution?

I think we’ve made significant progress by a number of measures. It began with President Kupchella’s mandate four years ago to move the University to the highest Carnegie level of doctorate-granting research institutions. The transformation he had in mind was always centered on the idea of establishing meaningful partnerships with the private and public sectors. We increasingly shape our research enterprise and bring our knowledge and expertise around problems that our constituents face.

Engagement stems from many levels among the university, private, and public sectors. An example of the University partnering at the federal level would be the Red River Valley Research Corridor, an initiative championed by Sen. Bryon Dorgan, which will have tremendous impact on economic development and the creation of well-paying jobs not only in North Dakota but also throughout the Upper Midwest region. I need to give credit to Sen. Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, who also have worked hard to help us make federal connections.

At the state and community levels, the University partners very closely with the Department of Commerce as well as municipal economic development organizations, particularly on matters related to enhancing a regional technology-based economy. The City of Grand Forks has partnered with the University in the very successful Faculty Research Seed Money plan for several years.

Many of our ongoing partnering initiatives stem directly from our units, and for some, engagement is not a new concept. The Energy and Environmental Research Center, by virtue of its mission and organizational structure, has formed hundreds of corporate partnerships over the past two decades and, in fact, has over 700 business, government, and academic clients in 47 countries around the world.

In the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, the Earth System Science Institute administers the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium. The consortium consists of researchers in five states who partner with farmers, ranchers, foresters, natural resource managers, and others in providing and interpreting NASA remote-sensing technology and applications to better manage and preserve the environment.

The School of Business and Public Administration heads up a number of initiatives that have significant impact on the lives of our people in rural communities. For example, the Government Rural Outreach program aims to provide greater use of the Internet to increase rural access to government services.

The School of Law, partnering closely with tribal leaders throughout the region, administers the Indian Law Center, which is becoming one of the nation’s leading research units on the laws that govern 275 reservations, or independent nations, within the United States.

The School of Engineering and Mines, working with a defense contractor, will be partnering with North Dakota companies on applications resulting from the School’s development of state-of-the-art surface engineering technologies to extend the life of critical components in U.S. Army helicopters and other vehicles.

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the College of Nursing are engaged with communities throughout the Upper Midwest in an extensive number of initiatives that bear on specific health and wellness issues common to the Great Plains region. For example, the Center for Rural Health in the Medical School, which is a federally designated State Office of Rural Health, is engaged with communities and their health institutions to facilitate the development and maintenance of rural health delivery systems. Likewise, the College of Nursing has for several years engaged in research that focuses on health and wellness issues associated with American Indian populations.

The College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education and Human Development have as their educational and research missions a number of clinical service delivery programs that stem from meaningful engagement. For example, the Psychology Department is conducting research and providing counseling in a program called “Project Freedom” that aims to identify strategies for increased self-sufficiency and economic stability for abused women and their children so that they may lead violence-free lives. The Communication Sciences and Disorders Department has for over 40 years provided research-based therapeutic delivery services to patients with speech, language, and hearing disorders throughout the age spectrum, and most recently to very young children who are delayed in speech and language skills in the “Toddler Language Circle.” Similarly, the College of Education is engaged with communities by bringing its research expertise to bear through service programs such as “The School as the Center of Community,” a program that links school social workers, nurses, and counselors to address critical social and healthcare issues in our K-12 classrooms.

University of North Dakota President Charles Kupchella, back right, and North Dakota State University President Joe Chapman, back left, and their vice presidents for research (Peter Alfonso, UND, right, and Phillip Boudjouk, NDSU, left) were again headliners at the North Dakota University System’s annual “R&D Showcase.” The event was held in Fargo on April 29. R&D Showcase IV, again highlighting research as a catalyst for North Dakota’s economic growth, will take place at UND in 2005. Despite the occasional headline about competition on and off the athletic field, the state’s two research universities collaborate on many projects, including EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) and the development of the Red River Valley Research Corridor. (Photo: Courtesy of NDSU)

Of course, the key elements in effective university research-related engagement, like most successful research projects, stem from individual commitment on the part of our faculty members. And that, I find, is the most exciting thing about UND: we have a high caliber of faculty expertise across a wide breadth of disciplines, coupled with the desire to make a difference, to make a significant impact across all of societal issues.

I obviously cannot name everyone here, but let me give a few examples of faculty who clearly understand what engagement is about. Professor George Seielstad in the Aerospace School and his passion for creating a sustainable environment; Professors Kathryn Rand and Matthew Fletcher in the Law School and their dedication to understanding how tribal tradition and culture affect tribal law; Dr. Gerry Groenewold and his zeal to make the EERC a world-class energy and environmental research institution; Dr. Mary Wakefield in leading the Center for Rural Health to national prominence; Professor Leon Osborne in crafting Meridian Environmental Technology Inc., one of UND’s most successful startup companies; Vice President and Medical School Dean David Wilson, who inspired the vision that shaped UND’s most successful research college; Dr. Lana Rakow, who shepherded the new Center for Community Engagement with the goal of linking UND faculty and students with North Dakota communities and nonprofit organizations; and many, many more. At the end of the day, it’s the individual champion that makes it all happen, and UND is blessed with a number of them.

Economic development is a key part of the Roundtable Report. Wouldn’t you consider growth in research funding a form of economic development?

Absolutely. Fiscal year 2004 was the most successful year in external awards and expenditures in the University’s history. Sponsored program awards grew from $71 million to more than $82 million in the past year alone. In the three years since fiscal year 2001, sponsored program awards increased 83 percent to $82.7 million and expenditures increased 76 percent to $82.2 million.

According to the most current published database maintained by the National Science Foundation, UND has risen to third of the 10 universities in our five-state region in research expenditures stemming from federal sources, behind only the University of Minnesota (ranked 16th nationally) and Montana State University (ranked 125th nationally). UND ranks 158th nationally out of 600 research universities in this pool. What’s important here is that expenditures from federal sources represent new money to the state, without which the university could not be a major player in the national research scene. Research receives very little money from the state. Rather, it is the external, highly competitive federal awards that sustain the university research enterprise. Simply put, research by and large pays it own way.

The economic impact of university research is significant. We completed an economic impact study of last year’s research expenditures that showed the $71 million in FY03 expenditures generated $135 million in economic output, over 1,400 jobs, more than $4 million in local tax revenue, and more than $13 million in federal tax revenue. While the greatest impact by far was in Grand Forks County, UND research had a direct impact on the economies in our five-state region.

Of course, there is the more distant economic impact stemming from the intellectual property generated by UND research that is not reflected at all in the study. For example, Professor Leon Osborne runs a very successful local company, Meridian Environmental Technology, Inc., with 40 full-time employees. This growing company has its roots in the research projects that Professor Osborne directed in his capacity as a member of the university faculty. The company as we know it today would most likely not exist if it were not for the research that Osborne was able to conduct at UND.

The important point here is that the economic impact of Meridian Environmental is not reflected in the economic output, job, and tax estimates generated by last year’s economic impact study. By the way, we are conducting an economic impact study of FY04 research expenditures, and I expect the results will be more impressive than last year’s.

Those are impressive numbers. Is that growth a result of focusing on specific kinds of research?

It is. For a number of years we have had three signature areas of research. Our Energy and Environmental Research Center has been a national leader in a number of areas for close to two decades, including hydrogen fuel cells, wind energy, biomass, environmental sciences, flood mitigation and control, and clean-air technologies, to name a few. The School of Medicine and Health Sciences has been doing national-caliber research in rural health even longer. And our John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences is a national leader in research related to aviation and atmospheric sciences.

Our ongoing focus is to increase the number of nationally recognized signature areas of research at UND. I’ve already mentioned some of this new work such as the engineered surfaces center in the School of Engineering and Mines, but let me mention just a few more.

We feel we have real potential in the area of sustainable energy, with important new collaborations in our Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering studying fundamental research problems related to fossil fuels and renewable energy sources.

We aim to make important contributions in the area of nutrition and wellness. We’re very fortunate to have a first-class federal research facility in our neighborhood, the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center. Center Director Dr. Jerry Combs and I are seeking ways to enhance the research relationships that our two institutions have enjoyed for many years.

With the completion of our new neuroscience research facility, we stand poised to make our mark in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Other potential signature areas in medicine include cancer, drug addiction, arthritis, joint disorders, diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, and retinal degeneration. In infectious diseases, we are focusing on both viral diseases, such as West Nile and HIV, and bacterial diseases, such as the Black Plague. Some of this work is being done in support of recent national defense and Homeland Security initiatives. Finally, I need to mention our research potential in the area of the forensic sciences.

In addition to the work in atmospheric sciences and weather prediction taking place in the Aerospace School that I’ve already discussed, our new Northern Great Plains Center for People and the Environment will lead us to national recognition for research promoting the good health of the planet as well as the sustainability of its resources and people.

How does all of this connect to the notion of Centers of Excellence?

Shortly before UND Discovery went to press, Gov. John Hoeven announced a $750,000 U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration public works grant to complete the funding package for the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, due to open in early 2005. The $3.8 million, 20,000-square-foot, multi-tenant lab and office facility for entrepreneurs is expected to support up to 20 new company start-ups annually and create employment for up to 400 people over the next seven years. The building’s funding package also includes $1.75 million from Duraflex entrepreneur Ray Rude of Stanley, N.D., for whose wife the building is named; $500,000 from aerospace entrepreneur James Ray of Sun Valley, Idaho; and $800,000 appropriated by the North Dakota Legislature. (Rendering courtesy of the Icon Architectural Group.)

UND’s aim is to name centers of excellence across all of the University’s disciplines, and the established and emerging signature areas will certainly be candidates for UND Centers, as well as centers of excellence named by state and federal entities. Centers of Excellence at UND are referred to as “Centers of Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity,” reflecting the broad range of our expertise. Thus far, we have named three: the Center for Rural Health, the Northern Great Plains Center for People and the Environment, and the Energy and Environmental Research Center.

The State of North Dakota takes a slightly different approach by focusing on economic development in naming Centers of Excellence. Last year, for example, the state named the Center for Innovation in the College of Business and Public Administration a “Center of Excellence in Economic Development” because of the Center’s valuable assistance given to entrepreneurs and small manufacturers since 1984.

In my view, there’s a bit of an artificial distinction between these two perspectives in that there are certainly many elements that underlie regional economic development. We know that corporations looking to expand elsewhere have at the top of their list “quality of life” parameters such as good K-12 public schools, safe environments, health care, and various leisure and cultural opportunities. For example, I can imagine a UND Center of Excellence in the performing and creative arts, which would not meet the state’s current criteria for center designation but would undoubtedly have a significant impact on a corporation’s decision to land in the Grand Forks area. The arts and humanities have an important impact on economic development and we, at UND, aim to recognize that contribution.

Moving from $71 million to more than $82 million in program and research funding is quite an achievement. What other sorts of things happened?

One of the major achievements of the past year is the establishment of the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization. We hired Dr. James Petell, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at San Diego. Jim has worked in both academia and the private sector. He comes to us with many years of experience in a biotech IP (intellectual property) management company, and he holds a good number of patents in his own right.

One of the purposes of Dr. Petell’s office is to enhance the commercialization of UND’s inventions and technologies. That is, we want to do a better job of getting the results of UND research to the marketplace. Dr. Petell has made a significant first impression with our faculty. In the first few months of his tenure, we’ve already seen a dramatic increase in the number of disclosures by UND inventors and patent applications filed with the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.

Commercialization is important to the University for a number of reasons. Of course, one important reason is the generation of revenue to further support the research enterprise. Second and equally relevant is the proper understanding of intellectual property management in the graduate student experience. The country is well-immersed in the so-called knowledge-based economy, which implies that our faculty and the next generation of university faculty will be much more involved in commercialization and economic development than they ever have been in the past.

Another achievement of the past year is the creation of the UND Computational Research Center, which became operational in August. One of the most powerful computer centers of its type in North Dakota, this is an essential high-performance tool for a growing number of the University’s researchers. For example, faculty members in chemistry will use high-performance computing for the mathematical modeling of hydrogen storage devices at molecular and nanoscale levels. Faculty in atmospheric sciences will use high-performance computing in high-resolution weather predictive modeling. And faculty in computer science will be involved in areas such as bioinformatics.

A third important achievement is the reorganization of the way the state’s two research institutions manage a large infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation. A significant aspect of this grant, called the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), is the state’s commitment in support of research. For example, in a pending grant application, the state committed to a mandated match of $4.5 million over a three-year period. The reorganization will allow UND and NDSU to better leverage state and federal funding for research to meet the aims of the grant and to better address each of the two institutions’ research goals. The reorganization goes a long way toward enhancing the collaboration between UND and NDSU researchers. There’s a wealth of talent on both campuses, and it’s obvious to all of us that the universities and the state will benefit from fully collaborative inter-institutional research teams.

The fourth achievement is the establishment of three UND Centers of Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity that I have already mentioned.

So how do the Red River Valley Research Corridor and the UND Research/Technology Park fit into all of this?

Both of these initiatives are most critical to our future growth as a national research university. The idea behind the Red River Valley Research Corridor is based on the assumption, and rightly so, that the state’s two research institutions will play a major part in economic development and high-paying job opportunities within the state. There is a large amount of data which demonstrates that emerging companies, and by extension economic development, come to fruition more often and are more successful in the long term when in proximity to research universities. The Research Triangle Park in North Carolina is often given as an example. The Park is so named because of the geographic triangle formed by Duke University, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University. Started in the late 1950s, the Park now sustains some 40,000 full-time employees, or about 80 percent of the population of Grand Forks, across 130 private organizations. I must point out that the success of the Research Triangle Park in large part is based on the university-community-corporate engagement process that I described earlier.

Like many other initiatives, the success of the Research Triangle Park is often attributed to one or two champions. North Dakota history will show, in my view, that the Red River Valley Research Corridor flourished due to the championship of Sen. Byron Dorgan. Both UND and NDSU are fully committed to this initiative.

In regard to UND’s Research and Technology Park, we are putting renewed energy in this area. President Kupchella has recently outlined the Grand Cities Commercialization Complex, which identifies the elements that already exist in the Grand Forks area that are necessary and available for corporate research. For example, UND provides a business incubator, core laboratories, workforce training, a technology transfer and commercialization office, etc. The City of Grand Forks provides air service, superb health care, available infrastructure, etc. The UND Research and Technology Park exists within this framework, and we are well into the planning stages for the construction of new research facilities in the park for both UND faculty and for our corporate partners. These are very exciting times, and by this time next year I will be able to tell you more about it.

I should also mention the significant role that the state will play in the expansion of the UND Research and Technology Park. In particular, Gov. John Hoeven’s proposal to set aside funding for a new round of Centers of Excellence for Economic Development is most crucial. The governor’s plan matches exactly what UND is aiming to do: focus for best opportunity and leverage resources. We are very supportive of the governor’s leadership in this most crucial state initiative in support of research.

Any final thoughts about where UND’s research enterprise is headed?

As a research institution of the highest caliber, we’re aiming at the thorough establishment of a culture of engagement, where the university brings its resources to bear on problems facing the world, and where the student experience is enhanced by bringing research and engagement into the curriculum. This edition of UND Discovery focuses on what we have accomplished thus far.

What do I see in the future? Expansion. Continued growth of research on the UND campus in every way you can measure it: more facilities and capabilities, increased funding and expenditures on research, additional highly educated researchers and staff, more patent applications, and more undergraduate and graduate students involved in exciting research. Thanks to help from lots of people, lots of partners, and lots of faculty and friends, the future of UND’s research enterprise is most promising.