Big Ideas Webinar - Oct. 10, 2018

David Jackson Author

10/18/2018 Added

70 Plays

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A webinar describing the Big Ideas Initiative (recorded on Oct. 10, 2018).

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[00:00:02.010]Good afternoon, this is Susan Fritz,
[00:00:03.800]and I serve as your executive vice president in provost
[00:00:07.190]with the University of Nebraska system,
[00:00:09.620]and I'm delighted that you have joined us
[00:00:11.890]on our maiden voyage on an initiative
[00:00:14.780]that the University of Nebraska
[00:00:16.490]and the University of Nebraska Foundation are combining
[00:00:21.130]our efforts on.
[00:00:22.310]And so, I am joined here today by David Jackson.
[00:00:27.300]Dr, Jackson serves as vice provost
[00:00:30.270]for the University of Nebraska system
[00:00:32.550]and I am also pleased to welcome Lori Byrne,
[00:00:35.500]executive vice president of advancement
[00:00:38.130]and campaign director.
[00:00:39.960]You will hear from each of us during this webinar.
[00:00:44.440]But before we talk about content,
[00:00:47.550]I would like to ask each of you to
[00:00:51.090]be certain that you are aware that we are
[00:00:53.410]looking forward to receiving questions from you.
[00:00:56.540]Please enter these questions via the Zoom Chat function,
[00:01:02.490]that's the bottom menu, right side,
[00:01:05.920]and address questions to everyone.
[00:01:09.860]Your video and audio are muted.
[00:01:11.670]So to hear the webinar, connect your audio via computer,
[00:01:15.790]or select the option to dial in.
[00:01:19.670]With that, I'd like to invite Lori Byrne
[00:01:22.970]to give us an overview of this exciting initiative.
[00:01:25.470]Good afternoon.
[00:01:26.420]Thank you Susan.
[00:01:27.320]My name is Lori Byrne.
[00:01:28.400]I'm with the University of Nebraska Foundation,
[00:01:30.550]and I just wanna hit on a high level
[00:01:32.470]Big Ideas Initiative basics.
[00:01:34.710]First of all, this is a a collaboration
[00:01:36.610]between the University of Nebraska
[00:01:37.977]and the University of Nebraska Foundation.
[00:01:41.010]It's a new approach to help identify
[00:01:42.860]strategic areas of investment
[00:01:44.860]that build on the strengths of the University of Nebraska.
[00:01:48.210]We're looking for direct faculty participation
[00:01:51.150]and input to generate new Big Ideas.
[00:01:55.170]And it's also designed to generate transformational ideas,
[00:01:58.920]and I'll explain later a little bit more about
[00:02:01.850]what describes the transformational idea.
[00:02:04.570]First of all, faculty teams are invited to submit
[00:02:06.960]bold interdisciplinary ideas that would likely require
[00:02:10.870]an investment of approximately of 25 million.
[00:02:14.400]Again, this is just an approximate amount
[00:02:16.720]to target in terms of your Big Idea.
[00:02:19.030]We're really just looking for things that are bold,
[00:02:21.500]innovative, transformational,
[00:02:23.570]have cross-campus collaboration.
[00:02:26.310]And 25 million is just at target area.
[00:02:28.500]Don't use that as a hard stop
[00:02:30.910]on submitting a Big Idea or not.
[00:02:33.340]Proposals can cover a wide range of outcomes.
[00:02:35.870]It could be anything from student support,
[00:02:38.460]research-oriented, or community service oriented,
[00:02:41.140]or a combination of all three,
[00:02:42.820]or a combination of a couple of those.
[00:02:44.990]And again, the Big Ideas will transform
[00:02:48.070]and use positive impact on Nebraska
[00:02:50.680]and potentially the world.
[00:02:53.390]So what are and are not Big Ideas?
[00:02:56.110]Big Ideas are interdisciplinary
[00:02:57.950]and focus on areas where NU has a unique capacity
[00:03:01.350]and talent to lead,
[00:03:03.230]their bold visions of what a program
[00:03:05.220]or initiative can be or achieve,
[00:03:08.210]and then they leverage existing programs
[00:03:10.410]to dramatically change an approach
[00:03:12.450]or to create new levels of collaboration.
[00:03:15.920]Big Ideas are not simply bundling related ideas.
[00:03:20.370]They're also not capital projects
[00:03:22.450]that aren't critical to deliver on a core initiative.
[00:03:26.060]While space might be important
[00:03:28.180]or a capital building might be important,
[00:03:31.870]it's what happens inside that building,
[00:03:33.780]the interdisciplinary research or activity
[00:03:37.870]that potentially might drive capital project,
[00:03:40.100]but it's not the capital project that drive the activity.
[00:03:43.830]And finally, is not creating around a naming opportunity.
[00:03:48.110]So, while there could be an idea about naming a college,
[00:03:50.890]or a unit, or an institute,
[00:03:53.420]that is not a Big Idea.
[00:03:55.050]Again, it needs to be interdisciplinary.
[00:03:56.820]It needs to be very focused on outcomes,
[00:03:59.980]versus just the actual transaction of naming
[00:04:03.120]a particular unit or area.
[00:04:05.620]So, overall, those are the Big Ideas basics.
[00:04:08.400]And now I will hand it over to David Jackson.
[00:04:13.470]Thank you, Lori.
[00:04:15.080]Now I'm going to take a few minutes to talk about
[00:04:17.640]various proposal elements
[00:04:19.600]associated with the Big Ideas Initiative program,
[00:04:25.250]as well as the process for submitting your proposal.
[00:04:30.830]First and foremost, the RFA
[00:04:33.430]is available on our Big Ideas website.
[00:04:36.000]That's nebraska.edu/big-ideas.
[00:04:42.070]You'll see in the RFA
[00:04:43.170]that the proposal deadline is January 11th,
[00:04:46.583]5:00 p.m. Central time.
[00:04:49.990]It's an electronic submission process, all text-based.
[00:04:53.980]So you'll be pasting in text to various fields,
[00:04:57.930]as described in the RFA in words.
[00:05:00.690]And our awards and grants website
[00:05:03.150]is grants-awards.nebraska.edu.
[00:05:08.650]The proposal should all reflect multi-discipline,
[00:05:12.290]multi-college, and/or multi-team approach.
[00:05:17.720]And you'll be submitting conceptual high-level ideas.
[00:05:24.660]Bottom line is your Big Idea
[00:05:26.480]must help transform the University of Nebraska
[00:05:29.620]and make a positive impact.
[00:05:34.200]There are number of ways in which you can build your team
[00:05:39.870]and begin to work on your Big Idea.
[00:05:43.340]One of them is to attend
[00:05:44.950]the Collaboration Initiative Retreat on November 9th.
[00:05:48.540]It's not a requirement,
[00:05:49.770]but it's an opportunity to network, expand your team,
[00:05:54.350]and define the scope of your proposal.
[00:05:58.420]One of the the first thing you'll need to do
[00:06:00.310]when you think about your Big Idea is to
[00:06:02.600]determine a proposal scope.
[00:06:04.770]It may not be research-specific.
[00:06:08.490]So it could be student-oriented, research-oriented,
[00:06:12.120]and/or community service-oriented.
[00:06:15.220]Submitting proposals with two of those, one of those,
[00:06:18.550]or three of those elements
[00:06:21.220]would certainly be considered.
[00:06:23.670]When you begin thinking about that kind of impact,
[00:06:28.720]creating framework for your Big Idea would need to have,
[00:06:34.510]and think about transforming University of Nebraska
[00:06:37.800]as I've previously mentioned.
[00:06:39.920]But you also have to be able to capture
[00:06:42.040]the imagination of donors.
[00:06:46.490]The Big Idea proposal format
[00:06:50.270]has a number of different elements.
[00:06:52.220]You'll see those in the RFA.
[00:06:55.030]I'll discuss several of them now.
[00:06:57.150]The first is to really identify
[00:07:01.940]the multi-mission, multi-disciplinary, multi-college,
[00:07:05.320]multi-campus idea you have and
[00:07:09.820]identify an idea that is acutely focused
[00:07:13.730]on areas where NU has a unique capacity to lead.
[00:07:19.800]When you like that section,
[00:07:21.220]there are a number of elements you should consider
[00:07:25.470]and be able to answer.
[00:07:27.450]One of them is would be how was NU
[00:07:29.640]uniquely positioned to create and nurture this initiative.
[00:07:34.000]Does your Big Idea require a larger investment in this area,
[00:07:39.180]or NU will be regional, nation, and international leader,
[00:07:42.970]and the expectation is that yes it does,
[00:07:45.890]would require a larger investment?
[00:07:50.210]Also, if there are others working in this space
[00:07:52.900]across the nation and in the world,
[00:07:55.840]you should think about who is doing this very well,
[00:08:01.010]and be able to differentiate the new initiative,
[00:08:05.640]your Big Idea, from those others.
[00:08:10.220]One of the things that was done recently was
[00:08:13.970]a large group of University of Nebraska faculty
[00:08:18.610]from all campuses got together
[00:08:21.510]for an NU Visioning Day.
[00:08:24.420]During that NU Visioning Day,
[00:08:26.300]there were a lot of discussions,
[00:08:28.530]and at the end of the Visioning Day,
[00:08:31.740]the participants, the faculty participants,
[00:08:34.250]identified quite a few elements that
[00:08:37.135]they believed were characteristics of a great university.
[00:08:42.900]So, in creating your Big Idea proposals,
[00:08:45.630]we like you to identify
[00:08:48.530]how your Big Idea
[00:08:50.910]incorporates for a more of a key characteristics
[00:08:54.560]of a great university that were articulated
[00:08:57.280]by your faculty talents.
[00:08:59.910]This would be learner-focused and exponentially infused
[00:09:07.997]to have a relentless focus on student success
[00:09:12.500]that the university's research activities would be relevant,
[00:09:21.411]that the university promotes diversity,
[00:09:24.180]and encourages that diversity,
[00:09:28.840]that a great university, in our case,
[00:09:32.860]is able to leverage talent across the system,
[00:09:37.560]that the activities of the university
[00:09:39.810]and its impact have local and global relevance,
[00:09:44.950]and that the university has missions
[00:09:47.850]that are purposefully and creatively changing the world.
[00:09:52.000]Again, we'd expect your Big Idea proposal
[00:09:55.550]to incorporate at least four of these key characteristics.
[00:10:00.910]These characteristics are more fully described
[00:10:03.720]on our website and in the RFA.
[00:10:07.960]When you're thinking about answering the question
[00:10:11.699]in your proposal about how your Big Idea
[00:10:15.450]will benefit Nebraska and the world,
[00:10:17.640]you'll need to be able to articulate who will impact,
[00:10:22.830]you'll need to describe at least five intended outcomes.
[00:10:28.500]And really begin to explain why having
[00:10:31.740]your Big Idea Initiative,
[00:10:34.730]why your specific Big Idea matters.
[00:10:38.130]Each of the Big Ideas needs to represent
[00:10:40.550]a large scale initiative
[00:10:42.060]requiring that private philanthropy that we've talked about.
[00:10:46.370]So you'll need to be able to describe what resources
[00:10:49.240]it will take to make the initiative happen.
[00:10:52.810]And you'll also be able to,
[00:10:54.870]need to be able to describe what resources
[00:10:57.860]are only available at NU that you'll be leveraging
[00:11:02.050]in order to accomplish the goals
[00:11:04.750]that you've articulated in your Big Idea proposal.
[00:11:09.788]You won't worry about formal approvals
[00:11:12.570]for leverage and match at this point.
[00:11:15.170]But as your proposal moves forward in the process,
[00:11:18.420]that will be described shortly,
[00:11:20.540]you will need to be able to formally
[00:11:24.210]identify those resources and capture
[00:11:28.620]people approval for any kind of match.
[00:11:32.260]Now Dr. Fritz will talk about
[00:11:34.170]the evaluation and timeline.
[00:11:36.543]Well, thanks.
[00:11:37.376]As David mentioned, we had the privilege
[00:11:40.020]of working with about 40 of our faculty
[00:11:42.810]across our four campuses
[00:11:44.960]in an effort to identify the characteristics
[00:11:48.290]of a great university,
[00:11:49.340]and we did that last April.
[00:11:51.170]I'm pleased to report that many of those same faculty
[00:11:54.310]have agreed to serve as faculty panelist
[00:11:57.310]who will independently evaluate
[00:11:59.100]the proposals that we receive,
[00:12:01.760]and those proposals must be based upon the RFA requirements,
[00:12:06.670]and you can see that the RF can be found at
[00:12:10.520]the Big Ideas website.
[00:12:13.610]Now after our faculty panelist provide
[00:12:16.160]their independent evaluation,
[00:12:17.850]there will be a steering committee,
[00:12:19.760]faculty administrators who will look over those
[00:12:23.090]independent evaluations and coordinate them,
[00:12:27.220]help in combining those into single evaluations.
[00:12:31.190]And then from there, the stirring committee
[00:12:34.130]will then forward your proposals
[00:12:36.290]to the chief academic officers,
[00:12:39.680]senior vice chancellor on your campus,
[00:12:42.040]and chief research officers in your campuses
[00:12:45.650]who will also review the proposals and evaluations.
[00:12:50.960]They will likely inform their chancellors
[00:12:56.270]and the presidents.
[00:12:58.122]And the president, the chancellors
[00:12:59.750]will have the opportunity then to review
[00:13:02.840]the information that you provide as applicants,
[00:13:06.680]as well as the evaluations remarks
[00:13:08.870]that have come forward and prioritize those proposals.
[00:13:14.020]Then after the prioritization process,
[00:13:18.310]we would hope that we would be in a position to
[00:13:22.130]begin providing feedback.
[00:13:24.170]We also would hope that those top proposals,
[00:13:28.550]those prioritized proposals would then be
[00:13:32.470]given over to the NU Foundation,
[00:13:34.970]and then the NU Foundation would test
[00:13:37.260]the external stakeholder interest
[00:13:39.650]and the proposals that have moved through this process.
[00:13:44.100]Now I know that this is probably
[00:13:45.810]on the forefront of many of your minds,
[00:13:49.820]and that is what happens,
[00:13:52.200]what kind of timeline are we talking about.
[00:13:54.840]With the proposals due on January 11th,
[00:13:57.320]and again that's 5:00 p.m. Central Standard Time,
[00:14:00.900]the proposal review process will begin almost immediately.
[00:14:04.610]So we will have feedback to faculty
[00:14:08.480]on those proposals that are not prioritize
[00:14:10.820]by the president's council.
[00:14:14.213]Earlier in the spring, we envisioned there may be
[00:14:18.060]an opportunity for some rewrite
[00:14:20.130]or combining proposals that have common,
[00:14:23.770]let's say a common thread, or a common backdrop,
[00:14:26.840]or a common impact.
[00:14:29.520]The prioritized proposals we anticipate
[00:14:32.730]will move forward to the NU foundation
[00:14:35.070]by the end of the spring.
[00:14:37.680]And during the summer, the foundation will start looking at
[00:14:42.310]external feasibility.
[00:14:44.310]This is where they will start considering
[00:14:47.500]donor interest as it relates to the proposals
[00:14:50.710]that have been sent over.
[00:14:53.380]We would expect that proposal development
[00:14:56.020]and/or consideration by a campus or a unit
[00:14:59.760]for funding priority would be 2019 to 2021.
[00:15:02.950]So, that's out a bit.
[00:15:07.100]I would say very quickly when
[00:15:09.330]we talk about proposal develop and/or consideration
[00:15:12.950]at a campus and/or unit.
[00:15:15.440]It is possible that there will be proposals that
[00:15:18.490]come in through this pipeline
[00:15:20.740]that may be are better considered as a priority
[00:15:25.010]by a college or a campus, or maybe even a unit,
[00:15:28.640]rather than being a Big Idea.
[00:15:30.900]But at this point, we're not looking
[00:15:33.860]to shut down the pipeline.
[00:15:35.940]We're interested in seeing those proposals,
[00:15:38.680]and we will let our process work,
[00:15:41.330]and we'll try to shepherd those proposals
[00:15:44.610]in a way that is most helpful to get them to funding.
[00:15:48.050]So, when we talk about the review process,
[00:15:50.980]what we've tried to build in is peer review,
[00:15:54.200]maybe not from the perspective
[00:15:57.060]you're used to thinking peers in your discipline,
[00:15:59.820]but peer review as it relates to faculty
[00:16:03.980]within the NU system.
[00:16:06.610]Obviously, matching up these ideas with strategic plans
[00:16:10.920]for campuses and for the system
[00:16:13.650]will be part of the process,
[00:16:16.030]so we'll be very strategic about this.
[00:16:18.430]And of course then looking at the fundability.
[00:16:21.710]And so, we hope by being careful in our peer review,
[00:16:25.160]by being strategic,
[00:16:26.770]and by looking at fundable possibilities,
[00:16:29.580]we are off to a good start with these Big Ideas Initiative.
[00:16:35.510]Now, we are to the end of sharing information
[00:16:40.070]and are just about ready to move into a Q&A
[00:16:43.820]and are very grateful that you have
[00:16:45.490]chosen to spend your time with us today.
[00:16:48.141]Well, while waiting for questions to come in,
[00:16:50.930]again, I encourage you to go
[00:16:52.590]to the nebraska.edu/bigideas website.
[00:16:57.600]That will be the place where you can find
[00:17:00.500]additional information, as well as download the RFA
[00:17:05.060]which describes in considerable detail
[00:17:08.910]how you put together your proposal.
[00:17:13.930]The first question is,
[00:17:15.020]are these proposals for faculty only?
[00:17:18.160]And what about proposals from staff or other employees?
[00:17:23.300]Susan, would you like to address that?
[00:17:25.490]Well, I'm happy to do so.
[00:17:27.930]We are not looking to screen out proposals
[00:17:31.590]if they come for staff members.
[00:17:35.920]We expect that we'll have broader participation by faculty.
[00:17:40.190]But certainly if a staff member has a Big Idea
[00:17:43.080]and wants to be involved in a team or lead a proposal,
[00:17:45.690]we are open to receiving that proposal.
[00:17:48.500]Again, I'd like for the plugin,
[00:17:50.570]while attendance is not required on November 9,
[00:17:55.150]for the Big Ideas kickoff,
[00:17:57.830]wee would certainly welcome
[00:17:59.650]that being a priority for many of you,
[00:18:01.450]we'd like to have a chance to do a live Q&A.
[00:18:04.305]And November 9th would also be a great time
[00:18:07.550]to find like-minded individuals across the system
[00:18:10.500]who may wanna partner on a Big Idea with you.
[00:18:13.120]Another question is
[00:18:14.700]whether the idea can involve some kind of endowment.
[00:18:21.620]Lori and I might wanna answer that one together.
[00:18:24.750]I would say that certainly it could involve and endowment.
[00:18:29.250]Lori, what would you say beyond that?
[00:18:31.380]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:18:32.213]I don't think there's any specific parameters
[00:18:34.660]about what kind of funding you're looking for,
[00:18:36.960]endowment, expendable, combination of
[00:18:39.660]would all be possibilities for your Big Idea.
[00:18:42.880]I think you should propose
[00:18:44.310]what you feel like would work best,
[00:18:46.290]and we will evaluate that based on
[00:18:50.520]a peer review and donor feasibility.
[00:18:54.210]So, nothing is off the table.
[00:18:58.020]David, I'll ask you this question.
[00:18:59.450]Is the Big Ideas Initiative inclusive of the arts?
[00:19:03.980]Yes, it is definitely inclusive
[00:19:06.360]of all of the disciplines that are offered
[00:19:10.160]within the University of Nebraska
[00:19:12.740]that is not a STEM-related initiative
[00:19:16.910]by any stretch of the imagination.
[00:19:18.773]It certainly could be, but may not.
[00:19:23.260]One of the question, Susan, is where can we find
[00:19:26.250]more information about this strategic needs
[00:19:29.490]of the NU system and the NU foundation?
[00:19:33.910]Well, that's a really good question, David.
[00:19:37.570]We have a strategic metric framework
[00:19:41.660]that I would point individuals to.
[00:19:44.090]That would give an idea of the board's priorities,
[00:19:46.620]as well as the president's priorities.
[00:19:49.920]One other way of thinking about that is
[00:19:53.280]this particular initiative is really unique,
[00:19:56.190]and that we're asking faculty to identify
[00:20:01.320]what they believe the strategic direction of the university
[00:20:05.560]would really be, going into the future.
[00:20:10.810]This is a very different strategy
[00:20:12.430]than one that I am used to in the 25 years that I've been
[00:20:16.670]with the University of Nebraska.
[00:20:18.480]I'm very excited that we started with the faculty
[00:20:23.500]on that faithful April 6th day,
[00:20:26.180]and that we continue to have a grassroots
[00:20:28.880]or faculty driven initiative.
[00:20:31.180]And I think it will be
[00:20:32.420]we will all be able to look back at this
[00:20:34.080]and think of it as a legacy opportunity.
[00:20:38.170]When we talk about transformation,
[00:20:40.120]we really believe that within
[00:20:43.093]the minds and harts of our faculty
[00:20:44.870]exist some tremendous transformational ideas,
[00:20:47.960]and we're trying to create a process
[00:20:49.250]to bring that forward.
[00:20:51.300]Okay, the next question myself regarding
[00:20:54.140]what will the November meeting cover.
[00:20:57.560]The Big Idea session
[00:20:59.970]within the collaboration initiative retreat
[00:21:03.190]is designed to offer a face-to-face opportunity
[00:21:07.950]for faculty members to hear from leaders in the foundation
[00:21:12.640]and Dr. Fritz, more about the Big Ideas Initiative,
[00:21:17.150]and also to give that opportunity for
[00:21:19.970]face-to-face question and answers.
[00:21:23.240]The other advantage of participating
[00:21:27.240]in the retreat in November
[00:21:30.350]is that you will have an opportunity
[00:21:32.450]to get together with colleagues
[00:21:35.100]that may help form the nucleus of a team
[00:21:37.893]that is putting together Big Ideas.
[00:21:40.200]So you'll have some real opportunity to sit down with them
[00:21:44.047]and have that dialogue.
[00:21:46.520]If you've never been to a collaboration initiative retreat,
[00:21:49.750]those retreats are not really about
[00:21:52.400]listening to a bunch of speakers.
[00:21:54.170]They're about you sitting down with your colleagues
[00:21:57.610]and (mumbles) objectives
[00:22:01.200]for future proposal development.
[00:22:05.700]Another question has come in is,
[00:22:09.395]is it a requirement to include multiple NU campuses
[00:22:13.830]or multiple units within an NU campus?
[00:22:19.150]I think Lori can take that one.
[00:22:23.200]Right, so it is...
[00:22:24.680]We wanna put emphasis on interdisciplinary
[00:22:27.420]and the opportunity to collaborate across campuses
[00:22:31.180]and across units.
[00:22:33.210]Visioning Day I think was enlightening to us,
[00:22:35.640]and that we had a lot of conversation with
[00:22:39.180]folks from different campuses and ideas that had
[00:22:42.210]very complementary elements to them,
[00:22:45.130]could be leveraged to create something much broader in scope
[00:22:48.680]with more transformative impact.
[00:22:52.000]That would be favorable.
[00:22:53.490]We would look more favorably
[00:22:55.150]on those proposals that came in
[00:22:56.810]that had cross-campus, cross-unit collaboration.
[00:23:01.410]So, certainly, a Big Idea could involve
[00:23:05.320]multiple units within a single campus,
[00:23:08.410]but ideally could involve
[00:23:11.440]multiple units within multiple campus.
[00:23:14.140]Correct.
[00:23:15.160]And I think that we'll find too
[00:23:16.370]as the big proposals come in
[00:23:17.850]or even part of conversations
[00:23:19.450]that happen at the collaboration initiative
[00:23:22.040]is that we'll start to see some of these things percolate
[00:23:25.570]and understand where there's some complementary components
[00:23:28.570]that we can play matchmaker and bring folks together
[00:23:31.210]to start dragging some of those ideas together.
[00:23:35.840]I will say, too, Lori,
[00:23:37.200]that we know that this has been a very effective strategy
[00:23:40.950]resulting in some multidisciplinary projects that
[00:23:45.720]if we could turn back the hands of time.
[00:23:49.480]An excellent example of that would be Food for Health.
[00:23:53.300]And today we are absolutely delighted
[00:23:57.300]that we've been able to see
[00:24:01.530]this circle of talent
[00:24:03.650]that are our faculty bring to deal with
[00:24:06.970]the subject area of food for health,
[00:24:09.410]and involving multiple disciplines, multiple campuses,
[00:24:15.420]leveraging significant investments
[00:24:17.930]that the university has made for years and years,
[00:24:21.070]and pulling that talent together in ways
[00:24:23.790]that have not been imagined before.
[00:24:26.670]But collectively, it's a transformative area,
[00:24:32.030]it attracts external funding.
[00:24:33.630]And some of that external funding has been in the form
[00:24:36.530]of gifts to the foundation donors who've gotten behind
[00:24:39.960]the idea of this being such an opportunity
[00:24:43.250]for the university.
[00:24:44.650]So when we think about,
[00:24:45.700]I see we have a question about it, about
[00:24:49.090]an example, I would say Food for Health
[00:24:51.170]would be one of those that I would point to,
[00:24:53.617]but that is one of many.
[00:24:56.760]So here's a question
[00:24:57.603]that I'm gonna reword a little bit,
[00:24:59.700]but really gets to
[00:25:01.320]how much detail are you really working at,
[00:25:03.820]because this question is a little concerned about
[00:25:08.370]do they need to figure out the nuts and bolts
[00:25:10.580]around shared space or resources for
[00:25:15.970]their ideas around public health initiatives
[00:25:19.130]for agricultural workers,
[00:25:21.820]and wondering, there might be really good linkages
[00:25:25.160]between UNMC, and UNK, and UNL.
[00:25:29.730]Do they have to figure all that out
[00:25:31.540]in their initial proposal?
[00:25:34.713]I would say that what we're very interested in
[00:25:39.550]at the conceptual level,
[00:25:41.980]the questions that, David, that you talked about
[00:25:45.040]really comprised the RFA,
[00:25:47.630]and that we are very much interested
[00:25:49.920]in the Big Idea being the driver.
[00:25:52.790]And as time goes by
[00:25:55.360]and a proposal moves through this process,
[00:25:59.270]if we get to the point where this is a proposal
[00:26:02.390]that would be put before a funder,
[00:26:06.050]we'll work out those details,
[00:26:07.810]but please know that along the way
[00:26:10.840]we have built in the opportunity
[00:26:12.580]for the chief academic officers,
[00:26:14.360]the chief research officers,
[00:26:16.110]chancellors, and the president,
[00:26:18.590]to look a these proposals,
[00:26:20.670]so they would have an idea of some of the commitment
[00:26:24.020]on the nuts and bolts part of what we're really trying to do
[00:26:27.620]is drive the asks based on,
[00:26:31.540]on the Big Idea
[00:26:33.170]at a conceptual level.
[00:26:34.800]And then you already talked about
[00:26:36.190]the Food for Health initiative as one example
[00:26:41.060]of something that if came up today
[00:26:44.050]might be considered a Big Idea.
[00:26:45.630]Do you have some other examples
[00:26:47.590]of what might be considered Big Ideas?
[00:26:51.940]I might throw outs,
[00:26:53.860]and you can build on this, Susan,
[00:26:55.560]is that at Visioning Day
[00:26:57.080]there was a lot of conversation
[00:26:58.780]that came at it from different angles
[00:27:00.530]around human movement.
[00:27:02.500]So, maybe you could talk about some of those pieces.
[00:27:05.320]Absolutely.
[00:27:07.050]We had a faculty member from UNMC who mentioned
[00:27:11.030]that she had thought about
[00:27:13.627]the various opportunities around the system
[00:27:17.870]to leverage the talent
[00:27:20.480]that kind of comes together at
[00:27:22.900]this nexus called human movement.
[00:27:25.090]And so, in fact, I think we're looking to have
[00:27:28.010]a breakout session.
[00:27:29.080]It's been put forward as one of the topic areas
[00:27:33.627]for the November 9th meeting.
[00:27:35.460]So those individuals interested in human movement
[00:27:38.860]would obviously gravitate together
[00:27:40.510]and have a conversation about
[00:27:42.410]what do we have, what do we need, what could this be.
[00:27:45.659]I think that could be a very powerful discussion.
[00:27:49.900]Here's an interesting question, Susan.
[00:27:51.720]Can collaborators from outside of the NU system
[00:27:55.560]be included on the proposals?
[00:28:00.040]Well, I think they could be
[00:28:00.960]included on the proposal,
[00:28:02.250]but we'd have to define
[00:28:03.550]what included on the proposal means.
[00:28:05.340]If leveraging a national network,
[00:28:08.370]regional, national, or international network,
[00:28:11.710]that makes sense related to whatever
[00:28:14.440]the theme of the Big Idea would be sure,
[00:28:17.980]we wouldn't look to raise donor funds though
[00:28:20.900]to invest outside of the University of Nebraska's
[00:28:24.460]four campuses.
[00:28:25.810]Yes, Lori, I am assuming
[00:28:27.363]that the University of Nebraska Foundation
[00:28:29.860]is really,
[00:28:31.770]it's mission is to help the University of Nebraska.
[00:28:34.908]Isn't that correct?
[00:28:35.743]That is correct.
[00:28:36.750]However, there could be Big Ideas that
[00:28:40.270]have such broad impact
[00:28:41.890]that they would have other community partners,
[00:28:44.710]state partners, other entities that might be
[00:28:47.610]part of the concept.
[00:28:48.770]However, the funding would benefit those
[00:28:51.720]entities associated to the University of Nebraska.
[00:28:54.790]That's not again to say that we wouldn't have some
[00:28:58.470]collaborative, or coalition, or something
[00:29:00.750]that would garner other support for that Big Idea
[00:29:03.250]to have a broader impact not only on the state,
[00:29:05.550]but even globally.
[00:29:07.856]David, we have a question
[00:29:10.100]that's come to us about core competencies.
[00:29:15.470]And sometimes the biggest ideas require
[00:29:18.310]a large core competencies of multiple fields.
[00:29:21.320]Could a Big Idea include
[00:29:22.950]the formation of a core UNL competitive competency,
[00:29:27.990]that's one.
[00:29:28.980]Two, collaboration with other universities,
[00:29:31.770]even other related core facilities at other institutions.
[00:29:35.170]And three, formation of a competitive multi-university,
[00:29:38.020]multi-state Big Idea.
[00:29:39.900]I think indirectly, we've answered pieces of that,
[00:29:42.530]but could you give kind of the conclusive response?
[00:29:47.550]Yeah, so I think as both Lori and Susan
[00:29:50.630]mentioned previously,
[00:29:52.720]the Big Idea is really about changing
[00:29:56.700]the University of Nebraska
[00:29:58.950]and having an impact not only on the state,
[00:30:02.363]but in the university, its students,
[00:30:05.070]but also more probably on the world.
[00:30:09.490]But if in doing that,
[00:30:12.770]being able to achieve
[00:30:15.570]that impact really have to be network
[00:30:18.920]or engage other partners,
[00:30:21.570]whether they are within the state
[00:30:23.220]or even external partners.
[00:30:26.750]That's going to be something
[00:30:28.270]that you'll need to describe in your Big Idea.
[00:30:31.210]But I think if you really put together
[00:30:33.350]a convincing argument about how that network
[00:30:37.300]would really serve, for example,
[00:30:39.830]a country as a whole, or the world
[00:30:41.840]and addressing particular problem,
[00:30:44.320]then I think we'd be really perceptive
[00:30:46.190]to listening to that kind of concept.
[00:30:50.300]Thanks, David.
[00:30:51.133]I think I'll take the next one,
[00:30:52.370]and I'd certainly welcome you and Lori
[00:30:56.280]to chime in on that.
[00:30:57.530]So the question is,
[00:30:58.740]how many Big Ideas will you consider?
[00:31:00.480]Could there be three to four Big Ideas
[00:31:02.280]that could require the 25 million?
[00:31:05.660]Well, indeed we are hoping that we have
[00:31:09.690]a lot of Big Idea proposals that come forward.
[00:31:14.680]Would it be difficult for us to handle if we had 100?
[00:31:18.230]Maybe.
[00:31:19.470]We've never done this before.
[00:31:20.810]This is our first, our maiden voyage,
[00:31:23.190]in this kind of grassroots effort
[00:31:27.150]to transform the university
[00:31:29.037]through a Big Ideas process.
[00:31:31.820]We are certainly hoping that
[00:31:34.150]we have many Big Ideas.
[00:31:36.490]Obviously, if we're only looking for three or four,
[00:31:40.652]we would probably have not cast the net so broadly,
[00:31:44.310]but we want to create space
[00:31:46.750]for anybody who has a Big Idea
[00:31:49.280]to come forward, to find like-minded individuals
[00:31:52.180]to form a team
[00:31:53.660]and to provide those proposals to move through the process.
[00:31:58.260]And what we would like to do is
[00:32:02.360]have as many of those come through
[00:32:04.700]that you all want to submit.
[00:32:07.380]I think the challenge becomes
[00:32:09.880]let's make sure they really are a Big Idea,
[00:32:12.020]because this is an opportunity for us
[00:32:17.650]to really create a legacy situation for the university.
[00:32:21.430]Now, Susan, it's my understanding
[00:32:23.250]that we've got no prohibition against
[00:32:27.180]a particular individual submitting
[00:32:30.460]more than one Big Idea.
[00:32:33.650]But on the other hand,
[00:32:36.350]because these Big Ideas involve teams of people
[00:32:40.880]putting forth ideas,
[00:32:42.683]it's really not one individual
[00:32:45.100]that's ever gonna put an idea together.
[00:32:49.580]Absolutely.
[00:32:51.250]The reality is I kind of think of this
[00:32:54.110]as concentric circles.
[00:32:55.920]And I can see a circumstance where we'd have
[00:32:58.580]somebody that might be leading a team,
[00:33:01.130]but also might be a team member on another proposal.
[00:33:06.750]And so, this isn't an all-or-nothing situation.
[00:33:10.494]Again, we're more driven
[00:33:12.840]by getting as many Big Ideas, great Big Ideas,
[00:33:17.450]rather than creating restrictions.
[00:33:20.870]So another question that came through was,
[00:33:23.120]is there anyone else out there doing this?
[00:33:26.030]And we just wanted to share that
[00:33:29.830]we took UC Davis as a model,
[00:33:32.260]and they've gone through a Big Ideas process
[00:33:34.360]and we've been in communication with them,
[00:33:36.110]and reflected on them what worked, what didn't work,
[00:33:39.930]and some of the things we wanted to incorporate,
[00:33:43.420]and some of those things that we wanted to customize
[00:33:45.310]and personalize for Nebraska.
[00:33:47.750]If anyone is interested,
[00:33:49.610]you could go to UC Davis's website.
[00:33:51.900]They have the whole page on their Big Ideas.
[00:33:54.710]A number of those Big Ideas haven't been
[00:33:57.550]identified as key themes and initiatives
[00:33:59.580]for their upcoming campaign.
[00:34:01.540]It might just give you a flavor around
[00:34:03.220]some of those other Big Ideas
[00:34:04.440]that have been out there.
[00:34:11.520]In fact, Lori, we've just received word from
[00:34:15.990]someone who's written it
[00:34:17.560]that to look at those UC Davis ideas,
[00:34:21.260]they can go to https://bigideas.ucdavis.edu/.
[00:34:34.710]There are a couple of things you could do
[00:34:38.130]if you do have questions while you're
[00:34:42.730]developing your Big Ideas.
[00:34:44.650]First of all, again, we encourage you attend
[00:34:47.850]collaboration initiative retreat on November 9,
[00:34:52.020]and registration information for that
[00:34:54.490]is on the Big Ideas website,
[00:34:56.500]which is, again, nebraska.edu/bigideas.
[00:35:01.370]Also, you can email us your questions
[00:35:04.040]at bigideas, all one word,
[00:35:07.453]@Nebraska.edu.
[00:35:10.580]Again, that's bigideas,
[00:35:12.810]all one word, no hyphen in the middle, @nebraska.edu.
[00:35:21.480]Thank you all very much for
[00:35:23.970]participating in this webinar,
[00:35:26.850]and we look forward to a great future with Big Ideas.

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Big Ideas Webinar - Oct. 10, 2018

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