Dean's Faculty Update
Research Roadmap Retreat
Date: March 5th, 2009
From: Mark R. McLellan, Dean
IFAS Faculty ----
The IFAS Research Roadmap is your faculty-driven, faculty-based plan for research that is a comprehensive self-examination of who we are as researchers, what we need to be as a viable and enviable research team for the next 10-20 years and how do we want to get there!
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Watch Kerry Herdon's presentation to the retreat attendees in this video.
The latest step in this year long endeavor was to bring together a diverse group of faculty members from all across IFAS to discuss IFAS-wide cross cutting multidisciplinary efforts. A select group of 100 faculty members gathered – many of whom had never met each other! There were young bucks just kicking off their careers, well-seasoned faculty at the peak of their career, and there were unit leaders carrying the breadth and full understanding of your discipline – all in conversation.
You will find the retreat agenda posted on the IFAS Research Roadmap Website. We organized the retreat by breaking into 3 major general worlds of what someone might say as they describe IFAS. Inside each we had three small groups of 10 faculty members discussing these cross cutting issues - a total of nine small groups in discussion. The groups were asked to identify and prioritize key multidisciplinary/ crosscutting research programs, characterize the top 5 research programs, and conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) of their group.
Kicking off the faculty conversation was Kerry Herdon of Kerry’s Nursery (http://www.kerrys.com/) one of the largest growers of exotic foliage in Florida. Also speaking was Larry Arrington, Interim Senior Vice President of IFAS and John Hoblick, President of Florida Farm Bureau (http://www.floridafarmbureau.org/).
Our plan is now to get the nine team leaders from the faculty discussion groups together one month after the retreat to reassess the retreat, what was discussed there, what proved successful, and where we are heading with the process.
This is just another step in the process of IFAS research review, one that will help each research unit learn from each other and move forward together. This summer we will put this process on pause and ask the College and the Extension service to look inside your discussions and see if there is value for them and input for us to consider as we move the process forward. This coming fall we will roll that process out to our stakeholders as the faculty’s visions of future research directions.
PowerPoint presentation summaries of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Dimensions of IFAS as summarized by the faculty can be seen on the web at this location.
Mark R. McLellan
Dean for Research, IFAS
Director, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
