N2025 Conversations | Aim 3: Interdisciplinary Endeavors to Solve Critical Challenges

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03/31/2022 Added

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In the third of a six video series, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln deans discuss progress on the N2025 strategic plan. The conversation explores Aim 3: Interdisciplinary Endeavors to Solve Critical Challenges

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[00:00:05.040]The third aim of N2025 challenged us to focus
[00:00:08.610]research scholarship, creative activity and
[00:00:11.310]student experiences to foster innovative
[00:00:14.220]interdisciplinary endeavors and solve challenges
[00:00:17.160]critical to Nebraska and the world. I'll begin
[00:00:20.370]with an update on the most visible work, which has
[00:00:22.680]taken the form of UNL's Grand Challenges
[00:00:24.960]initiative. During 2020, more than 500 members of
[00:00:28.980]the university community joined in a participatory
[00:00:31.890]process to identify and describe a portfolio of
[00:00:35.010]Grand Challenge themes for our university. That
[00:00:38.100]process resulted in the selection of seven
[00:00:40.320]thematic areas to help focus and guide our work at
[00:00:43.320]Nebraska:
[00:00:44.690]anti racism and racial equity, climate resilience,
[00:00:48.410]early childhood education and development, health
[00:00:51.230]equity, quantum science and engineering, science
[00:00:54.710]and technology literacy for society and
[00:00:57.140]sustainable food and water security. Then, in the
[00:01:01.070]summer of 2021, Chancellor Green and Vice
[00:01:04.100]Chancellor Wilhelm stunned us, I think it's safe
[00:01:06.860]to say that they stunned us, by making a $40
[00:01:09.440]million strategic investment toward the Grand
[00:01:11.780]Challenges. And ever since, ORED has committed to
[00:01:14.930]stewarding that unprecedented investment in ways
[00:01:18.230]that are transparent, equitable and inclusive.
[00:01:21.710]That stewardship has evolved into an all-hands
[00:01:25.010]university-wide affair. To begin, we seeded a
[00:01:27.740]steering committee of 21 faculty and staff. That
[00:01:31.070]group of our critical friends helped us to
[00:01:32.990]co-create a request for Grand Challenges
[00:01:35.210]proposals, and they supported the design of the
[00:01:37.760]processes by which the probe proposals we receive
[00:01:41.030]will be evaluated. Our steering committee also
[00:01:44.090]helped us to architect programming offered
[00:01:46.250]throughout the fall of 2021 and into the spring of
[00:01:49.400]2022. That programming has been designed to engage
[00:01:53.210]the university community, to foster connections
[00:01:55.970]within and across the thematic areas, and to
[00:01:58.820]support the development of Grand Challenges
[00:02:00.860]proposals. Since last September, this programming,
[00:02:05.120]which has included more than 20 different events,
[00:02:07.580]engaged over 650 UNL faculty, staff, students and
[00:02:11.360]friends. Here's how that engagement is paying off.
[00:02:15.140]Last week, 66 teams provided notice of intent to
[00:02:18.500]submit a Grand Challenges proposal in 2022. 42
[00:02:22.310]teams are pursuing planning grant, and 25 teams
[00:02:25.340]are seeking catalyst awards. These teams are led
[00:02:28.580]by faculty of all ranks and types. And the
[00:02:31.310]projects include contributors, that's faculty and
[00:02:33.860]staff primarily from every college on our campus.
[00:02:37.280]Based on our review of the notices of intent to
[00:02:39.440]submit, we also anticipate meaningful integration
[00:02:42.440]of private sector partners in the proposed
[00:02:44.330]projects. And we truly cannot wait to read the
[00:02:47.120]full proposals that are due at the end of April.
[00:02:50.540]So now I'd like to shift gears and share a bit
[00:02:52.760]about some of the less visible but still very
[00:02:55.130]important work ORED is doing in support of AIM
[00:02:57.710]three. Our team worked with the deans to designate
[00:03:00.890]a set of university wide research centers that
[00:03:03.680]significantly involved faculty and researchers
[00:03:06.200]across two or more colleges, as well as within the
[00:03:09.050]institute. And this winter, we launched a process
[00:03:12.140]for annual reporting and planning for each of
[00:03:14.600]these centers, a process that involves cross
[00:03:17.180]campus leadership alongside ORED. Ultimately, the
[00:03:21.140]goal is that these important hubs are current and
[00:03:24.110]yet to be formed, university wide research
[00:03:26.510]centers, will have clear and transparent pathways
[00:03:29.690]for faculty to engage, along with well defined
[00:03:33.110]coordinated processes that bring relevant campus
[00:03:35.630]leaders together to share and center planning,
[00:03:38.390]resourcing and evaluation. As we work together
[00:03:42.020]toward more inclusive and integrative
[00:03:44.450]interdisciplinary opportunities, like the Grand
[00:03:47.000]Challenges, and enabling structures, like our
[00:03:50.510]university-wide research centers, how do we ensure
[00:03:53.090]that processes for faculty evaluation, also
[00:03:56.210]incentivize and reward participation in
[00:03:58.910]interdisciplinary endeavors?
[00:04:01.790]Interim Dean, Chris Marks of the Hixson-Lied
[00:04:04.760]College of Fine and Performing Arts couldn't be
[00:04:06.740]with us today. So I'm going to channel him as I
[00:04:10.940]praise the Grand Challenges efforts. And so as we
[00:04:15.050]think across the College of Fine and Performing
[00:04:17.750]Arts, and we think about the Johnny Carson Center
[00:04:20.330]for Emerging Media Arts and the contribution that
[00:04:23.720]that makes to those Grand Challenge proposals that
[00:04:27.230]they're a part of, to music to graphic design, and
[00:04:32.660]the arts. I lift that up as a wonderful example of
[00:04:37.190]the contributions that the arts and creative
[00:04:41.360]fields make to these research Grand Challenges.
[00:04:46.020]Challenges like global food and water security,
[00:04:50.640]are so enormous. They're so daunting, they're so
[00:04:54.930]complex that the only way we can begin to address
[00:04:58.440]them is with complex teams. And that's really
[00:05:04.680]teams built across discipline, across
[00:05:08.250]translational capacity, and in collaboration with
[00:05:11.790]our private sector partners. And I really believe
[00:05:15.630]that our faculty understand this, and that they're
[00:05:19.710]positioned and capable of doing this better than
[00:05:23.250]any faculty in the world. It's one important
[00:05:26.010]mechanism for increasing our research impacts is
[00:05:29.610]our university-wide research centers, and our
[00:05:33.540]centers within our academic units and institutes.
[00:05:37.590]Centers that partner with and across the academic
[00:05:41.340]units and the colleges to to foster those faculty
[00:05:46.560]collaborations and transdisciplinary teams. And
[00:05:51.060]they're essential to growing impacts from research
[00:05:54.060]and creative activity. And the opportunity to
[00:05:57.300]engage in these and the teams in these centers is
[00:06:01.950]once again, a significant draw for our faculty.
[00:06:05.790]When you talk to some of our most successful
[00:06:08.940]faculty and new faculty, they're maybe here
[00:06:14.250]because they came here to engage in one of these
[00:06:16.680]centers. So they're really important mechanisms.
[00:06:20.250]In the College of Journalism and Mass
[00:06:21.660]Communications, really, we've seen the Grand
[00:06:24.540]Challenges as an opportunity to fully engage
[00:06:28.560]across campus. And I really appreciate the
[00:06:31.500]holistic approach to research that we're focusing
[00:06:34.590]on now. And all across our college, what we are
[00:06:38.700]able to do is provide that information, provide it
[00:06:41.760]clearly. Even on the advertising and public
[00:06:44.520]relations side, focusing on advocacy, on
[00:06:47.370]persuasion on being able to understand the impact
[00:06:51.480]of science, and making sure that the messaging and
[00:06:54.630]the support of that messaging is clear throughout
[00:06:57.600]the nation, when we're focusing on the importance
[00:06:59.850]of science and what we can do at a research one
[00:07:02.700]university.
[00:07:03.870]Last check, we had 18 faculties submit intentions
[00:07:07.500]for proposals as a part of the Grand Challenges
[00:07:09.690]initiative, and one of those grand challenges in
[00:07:12.750]the area of quantum materials and technology. And
[00:07:17.550]as Nathan was saying, Grand Challenges will kind
[00:07:19.980]of lift up and help us advance areas where we
[00:07:22.530]already have a lot of excellence. One of those is
[00:07:24.960]the emergent quantum materials and technologies
[00:07:26.970]collaboration, which was recently awarded a $20
[00:07:30.660]million grant through the EPSCoR program led by
[00:07:33.900]Christian Binek. This is a group of 20 scientists
[00:07:36.870]from six different Nebraska colleges and
[00:07:39.630]universities, including the Nebraska Indian
[00:07:41.940]Community College and Little Priest Tribal College
[00:07:44.550]and involves many scholars right here at UNL. That
[00:07:48.420]are part of leading Nebraska as a real primary
[00:07:53.820]leader in the area of quantum science and
[00:07:56.490]discovery. And so we're excited both about this
[00:07:59.670]area of excellence at UNL and what Grand
[00:08:02.640]Challenges we'll be able to do to help us promote
[00:08:04.710]that area even further. Speaking to something that
[00:08:08.190]Dean Shari Vale was just talking about, we also
[00:08:11.340]are very concerned about the rise of distrust of
[00:08:15.090]higher education, the distrust of science. In in
[00:08:19.290]the College of Arts and Sciences, we're trying to
[00:08:21.030]address that, through a new initiative that looks
[00:08:24.330]to build an Institute for Advanced Research, and
[00:08:27.600]Engagement. The mission of this institute will be
[00:08:30.750]to advance core research and creative activities
[00:08:33.870]in the arts and sciences, in support of
[00:08:36.840]collaborative partnerships and research, but also
[00:08:40.050]to have an extensive public engagement arm, so
[00:08:43.110]that the community, the people in Nebraska,
[00:08:45.120]understand the value and the importance of science
[00:08:47.850]to their lives. And to address the rise of
[00:08:51.150]distrust of these kinds of institutions. We're at
[00:08:53.730]the very early stages of developing this idea. But
[00:08:56.610]we're seeking private support, and foundation
[00:08:59.400]support. And so far, everyone we talked to about
[00:09:01.320]this idea understands the value of both promoting
[00:09:03.840]interdisciplinary teams, advancing graduate
[00:09:06.900]education in a new way, and really investing in
[00:09:09.990]the outreach arm of the university.
[00:09:12.240]Just like to follow up on scientific credibility.
[00:09:16.500]And one of the things that UNL has with Extension
[00:09:20.220]is that we have UNL faculty embedded within our
[00:09:24.300]communities. And they live there, and they work
[00:09:27.720]there. And they interact there. And they are
[00:09:31.050]viewed as a as a trustworthy source of information
[00:09:34.380]within their communities, engaging with the
[00:09:37.320]communities in a two-way information is one of the
[00:09:41.970]strengths at this university has surpassing most
[00:09:46.230]other land grants across the country.
[00:09:48.950]So I'm excited to hear us talk about people who
[00:09:51.410]don't trust or understand science, because I'll
[00:09:54.080]put lawyers at the top of that list. And I think
[00:09:57.470]one of the foundational tenets of the Nebraska
[00:09:59.660]Governance Technology Center is that lawyers and
[00:10:02.930]policymakers need to understand the science that
[00:10:05.330]they are regulating. And conversely, the
[00:10:08.030]scientists and the engineers who are putting
[00:10:10.400]together the great new inventive technologies that
[00:10:12.860]we are seeing need to understand the laws and
[00:10:14.660]regulations and norms of our democratic society.
[00:10:18.290]And so collaborating and having conversations in
[00:10:21.890]the colleges of Business and Engineering and
[00:10:24.260]Journalism and Mass Communications with the
[00:10:26.000]College of Law and bringing those people together
[00:10:28.370]to have those conversations, I think will really
[00:10:30.890]have a great impact on on that issue. And we also
[00:10:34.460]see that kind of collaboration at the college in
[00:10:37.190]our Children's Justice Clinic. And its work with
[00:10:39.650]the Center for Children Family and the Law, where
[00:10:42.500]we're working with lawyers to become guardians ad
[00:10:45.320]litem for children. But they need to understand
[00:10:47.900]more than the law, they need to understand social
[00:10:50.630]and family dynamics and dysfunctions, in cases
[00:10:54.020]where children are removed from homes because of
[00:10:56.420]allegations of abuse or neglect. So by partnering
[00:10:59.750]with the CCFL, and the College of Arts and
[00:11:01.820]Sciences, we bring in experts in those areas in
[00:11:04.880]substance abuse and sexual abuse and long term
[00:11:08.810]family dysfunction, to talk with our law students
[00:11:11.360]about how to manage those situations in a really
[00:11:14.360]complex, ever moving family situation. And that
[00:11:18.050]type of interdisciplinarity, I think is really
[00:11:20.180]important for our student experience, and will
[00:11:22.250]help them be better lawyers at the end of the day.
[00:11:25.610]And then finally, at the College of Law, we think
[00:11:28.520]a lot about anti-racism and racial equity. And one
[00:11:32.600]of the areas I'd like to hold up with that grand
[00:11:35.000]challenge is, I talked earlier about Jess
[00:11:38.030]Shoemaker and her Carnegie fellowship, one of the
[00:11:40.250]things she's doing with Professor Anthony Schutz,
[00:11:42.890]is putting together what they call the Rural
[00:11:45.830]Reconciliation project, which is looking again at
[00:11:49.280]the future of rural communities in America,
[00:11:53.900]But also thinking about particularly the Grand
[00:11:56.180]Challenge around anti-racism and racial equity,
[00:11:58.340]that there's collaborations and conversations that
[00:12:00.260]are happening, that is really leveraging and
[00:12:02.990]pulling together faculty and scholars who are
[00:12:05.150]engaged in work around race and and Indigenous
[00:12:09.080]Studies, and certainly other intersections of of
[00:12:12.710]equity and inclusion, and then to do this work in
[00:12:16.160]a way that's having this broader impact that we
[00:12:18.410]discussed earlier. And so I think that part of
[00:12:22.010]where we're finding ourselves is that we're going
[00:12:23.840]to have to think about just new and creative ways
[00:12:27.800]that makes these points of connection that we've
[00:12:30.260]not necessarily thought through before because
[00:12:32.060]again, we always, not always, but we often go to
[00:12:34.940]okay, there's probably a center or institute that
[00:12:37.280]does that. And that's kind of where that work
[00:12:38.900]exists. But what might it look like if there was
[00:12:43.040]no center and that there was just this building a
[00:12:47.750]collaborative enterprises that exists in the same
[00:12:52.070]way that I think the Grand Challenge is trying to
[00:12:54.200]do that we can certainly build on.
[00:12:55.580]In the College of Education and Human Sciences, we
[00:12:58.130]took a little bit different approach to the Grand
[00:13:00.020]Challenges, actually, I think it all happened
[00:13:01.910]simultaneously. So it wasn't that one thing
[00:13:05.420]happened and then another, but we actually took
[00:13:09.260]the tact of thinking about why the college exists.
[00:13:12.980]And that conversation and others led us to three
[00:13:17.480]grand visions. So those grand visions are thriving
[00:13:21.740]young children, comprehensive health and well
[00:13:23.870]being and strong communities, every one of which
[00:13:26.750]is addressing disparities addressing opportunity
[00:13:29.690]gaps, addressing access for every person to
[00:13:35.060]achieve their maximum potential, to contribute to
[00:13:37.790]their communities in meaningful and constructive
[00:13:40.010]ways and to enjoy optimum health and well being
[00:13:42.650]throughout the lifespan. And what I'm really proud
[00:13:45.230]about these three grand visions is that they were
[00:13:48.500]co created with conversations and alignment with
[00:13:54.170]the NU System with the UNL campus, with our campus
[00:13:58.610]partners around this room, with our community
[00:14:02.360]partners that we are engaged with, and all kinds
[00:14:05.540]of work with our stakeholders and our donors. Now
[00:14:09.260]the big question, we want to ask ourselves, what
[00:14:11.840]is our optimal alignment to achieve those grand
[00:14:14.660]visions? And can we think about our college very
[00:14:18.770]differently than we have in the past? I'm really
[00:14:22.490]looking forward to the work that we're trying to
[00:14:25.370]do there. Transformational is the word that comes
[00:14:28.820]to mind.
[00:14:29.930]And then I would just lift up that the Grand
[00:14:31.880]Challenges have been exciting for programs like
[00:14:34.520]the Honors Program in thinking about how to
[00:14:37.670]support interdisciplinary efforts in teaching
[00:14:40.910]classes. Just to pull off a few, this summer we're
[00:14:44.360]offering a global challenges summer camp on
[00:14:47.120]environmental innovation and leadership. That will
[00:14:49.970]be for rising high school, rising juniors and
[00:14:52.880]seniors in high school. It will focus on
[00:14:55.610]environmental stewardship and bringing together
[00:14:58.490]the expertise of our faculty but also community
[00:15:01.640]members and honor students who are current
[00:15:04.700]students to serve as mentors for those students.
[00:15:07.820]So it's both a recruitment opportunity, but also
[00:15:10.460]an opportunity to really engage in
[00:15:13.340]interdisciplinary teaching and learning with the
[00:15:15.320]College of Arts and Sciences and the Honors
[00:15:17.450]Program. And then also our Honors Program has
[00:15:20.960]developed for tracks, environmental stewards,
[00:15:23.900]global leaders, civic leaders, and health
[00:15:26.000]scholars. These are experiences that that they
[00:15:29.390]take interdisciplinary seminars with faculty from
[00:15:32.450]across the colleges, but then they also
[00:15:34.700]participate in internships and experiential
[00:15:37.610]learning.
[00:15:38.870]Few things are as interdisciplinary as the
[00:15:41.120]libraries. And a powerful set of expertise that we
[00:15:44.150]are working to make sure is very well connected to
[00:15:46.460]all of these Grand Challenges, teams and
[00:15:48.950]activities. And I think the the kind of some of
[00:15:52.250]the barriers that we've touched on also have to do
[00:15:55.010]with areas of traditional library expertise. So if
[00:15:57.770]we want to know who's doing research around
[00:16:00.740]equity, or who's doing research around the
[00:16:03.080]achievement gap, that vocabulary may be very
[00:16:06.230]different field to field. But the librarians
[00:16:09.620]understand that deeply and I think are in a good
[00:16:12.710]position to formulate new strategies for
[00:16:15.620]overcoming those barriers.
[00:16:17.230]One of the programs in the College of Agricultural
[00:16:19.600]Sciences and Natural Resources is our Changemaker
[00:16:22.480]program. And we launched this in fall 2022. And
[00:16:25.750]our goal was to attract students here in Nebraska,
[00:16:29.410]and literally around the world, that had a big
[00:16:31.990]idea that they wanted to live out that would have
[00:16:34.330]a positive impact on Nebraska, or another part of
[00:16:37.630]the world related to Ag and Natural Resources. And
[00:16:40.780]through this program, our students get to live out
[00:16:42.970]their big idea during their four year experience.
[00:16:45.580]They're partnered with a mentor here on campus,
[00:16:48.640]even external mentors, and that can help them to
[00:16:51.370]advance their concepts and their ideas. And then
[00:16:53.920]they're part of a learning community.
[00:16:56.010]We also have long standing expertise in minority
[00:16:58.938]health disparities that have helped to feed into
[00:17:01.866]the health equity Grand Challenge from scholars
[00:17:04.735]across psychology, sociology, communication
[00:17:07.364]studies in our School of Global Integrated
[00:17:09.934]Studies. A lot of those folks are working in the
[00:17:12.862]area of health equity in a lot of different ways
[00:17:15.791]and are collaborating in the area of health
[00:17:18.420]equity, to address that big Grand Challenge.
[00:17:22.139]In the College of Business, we've had some faculty
[00:17:25.677]that have been actively engaged in research as it
[00:17:29.145]relates to child support laws, looking at things
[00:17:32.545]like the Headstart program and its effect on human
[00:17:36.083]capital and economic self sufficiency. We've also
[00:17:39.551]had a lot of work done across both supply chain
[00:17:42.881]management and marketing as it relates to health
[00:17:46.280]and well being related to obesity, things like
[00:17:49.541]marketing and how it impacts the well being of
[00:17:52.802]young adults. So a lot of things that relate to
[00:17:56.131]the early childhood aspect of our Grand Challenges.

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N2025 Conversations | Aim 3: Interdisciplinary Endeavors to Solve Critical Challenges

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