Basic Sciences Strategic Plan Overview 2021–2026

This effort recognizes that the basic sciences are fundamental to every aspect of our mission as a leading academic medical center. The strategic plan describes key actions that serve as a roadmap as we navigate the ever-changing landscape of fundamental research and education.

Mission

Innovation, collaboration, and fundamental discovery to advance knowledge, teach and mentor learners, and translate discoveries to promote health in Wisconsin and beyond.

Vision

We develop, expand, and support research programs to accelerate innovation and discovery, enhance the translation of research outcomes, and train the next generation of scientists.

Values

• Integrity and Accountability — Every person, every action, every time
• Ethical Practices in Research — Honesty in every data point
• Compassion — Treat all with kindness, understanding, and empathy
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity — Respect the rights, dignity, and differences of all
• Professionalism — Conduct beyond reproach
• Excellence — Strive to improve continually

Strategic Priorities

1. Build a more vibrant and successful community of graduate and postdoctoral trainees
2. Develop new mechanisms and greater consistency in our support of faculty and staff, and incentivize success
3. Strengthen our administrative and scientific infrastructure to support collaborative research programs
4. Prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to enhance recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty, staff, and learners
5. Identify and invest in research programs that will lead to transformative discoveries and impact

Objectives

• Integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into every aspect of the School of Medicine and Public Health Basic Sciences through the Building Community program
• Plan, create and implement centralized graduate admissions, recruitment, and initial experience for graduate training programs in the School of Medicine and Public Health
• Enhance postdoctoral training through inclusive recruitment and retention strategies and prioritize individual development to independence
• Acquire state-of-the-art technologies to strengthen our research infrastructure and enable collaborative partnerships
• Foster new connections among School of Medicine and Public Health investigators
• Revise faculty promotion criteria with increased emphasis on collaborative research, new and non-traditional areas of research, and service related to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Dramatically increase philanthropic funding of basic science research and research training
• Develop and implement school-wide mechanisms to encourage, recognize, and reward exceptional achievement by faculty, staff, and learners
• Exploit the data use agreement between the School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health to accelerate basic science discoveries from de-identified patient data
• Foster interdisciplinary collaboration between artificial intelligence (AI) experts and medical imaging researchers at the University of Wisconsin to develop and apply state-of-the-art AI and quantitative imaging to deliver precision health solutions
• Improve health in under-served communities by developing or improving the methods, metrics, and tools needed to study root causes of health disparities
• Facilitate the use of genomics and data analysis pipelines to understand normal development, deepen our knowledge about disease, and improve human health
• Continuously scan the scientific landscape to identify targeted opportunities that leverage our emerging strengths
• Increase industry collaborations and funding for sponsored research and clinical trials

Selected Foundational Accomplishments (2015-20)

• Increased Dean’s Office funding for all basic science departments in support of faculty and student recruitment and new programmatic initiatives
• Successfully engaged under-served communities in research to address the basis for and mitigation of disparities in health and health care
• Increased recruitment of under-represented faculty, including more than 15 new Centennial Scholars
• Created new UW–Madison centers:
  • Center for Human Genomics and Precision Medicine
  • Center for Biomedical Swine Research and Innovation
  • Comprehensive Diabetes Center
  • Prevention Research Center
• Created new graduate training programs:
  • Biomedical Data Science MS and PhD
  • Clinical and Health Informatics MS and capstone
  • Applied Biotechnology MS
  • Applied Bioinformatics certificate
• Established the Biomedical Graduate Program Consortium, which has recruited increased numbers of under-represented students who now represent 24 percent of consortium trainees
• Improved trainee wellness by leading the campus-wide graduate and professional student mental health task force, contributing to the creation of the Building Community Well-Being Strategy Work Team and Building Community Well-Being Advisory Committee, and facilitating graduate student mental health discussion groups
• Established the Office of Training Grant Support to:
  • Unite the training grant community
  • Support the establishment of new training grants
  • Support renewal of existing programs
  • Provide educational opportunities and other resources that support effective training grant administration
• Established the Office of Postdoctoral Studies, which expanded to serve the entire UW–Madison community, to promote community and professional development among postdoctoral learners
• Established the Office of Industry Engagement to develop effective interactions with industry and work with faculty to launch collaborative research with industry partners
• Created medRAMP (Research AdMinistration and Proposal Development Services) to increase extramural grant support for single and multi-investigator research through assistance with the planning, development, and submission of competitive grant proposals to federal and non-federal funding sources
• Established the MATRIX (Mentoring to Achieve Research Independence) program to help junior faculty achieve success in obtaining extramural grant funding
• Created new professional development opportunities for trainees, including jointly offered training in the Responsible Conduct of Research and in Rigor and Reproducibility