UMassBoston:researchclusters

Office of the Vice Provost for Research
p: 617-287-5370
orsp@umb.edu

Interdisciplinary Research Clusters

During the 2006-07 academic year, consultants from the Battelle Technology Partnership were engaged to study the research achievements and capacities of UMass Boston and to map their findings to regional and national opportunities that would enable the university, through strategic investments, to grow significantly its research enterprise. Based upon the results of quantitative and qualitative analyses and extensive on- and off-campus stakeholder consultations, the consultants identified a diverse and robust set of eight research clusters for potential future development. The Battelle findings and recommendations were published in the report Research Reenvisioned for the 21st Century: Expanding the Research of Scholarship at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Following discussions with the chancellor and the provost, four of the eight research clusters
were selected for the development of strategic investment plans by the Battelle consultants:

Urban health and public policy research,
Developmental sciences,
Science and math education and learning research, and
Computational sciences, analysis, and modeling.

Four workgroups, comprised of faculty and staff members and led by an academic dean, have been established to carefully review the investment plan recommendations proposed by the Battelle consultants and to develop a proposed set of implementation strategies and tactics for the five-year period beginning in September 2008.