Center and Institute Guidelines
Informal proposals to establish new centers and institutes may come from any group of faculty members within the university and may be discussed informally at all levels. Formal proposals to establish centers or institutes at Iowa State require an administrative approval process as well as explicit approval by the Board of Regents.
Formal proposals are reviewed and approved by all involved department chairs and/or center/institute directors, all involved academic deans, the vice president for extension if outreach activities are proposed, the vice president for research if research activities are proposed, the senior vice president and provost, and the president.
The formal proposal must include a detailed description of the proposed unit, including information on who will be involved, the vision for the new unit, how it will be structured, and how it will be funded (see Board of Regents Form C). Once a Form C is completed, the OVPR will work with the respective unit and SVPP to obtain approval documentation and request inclusion on a Board of Regents agenda.
See Establishing Centers and Institutes, Iowa State University Policy Library.
See also Stages of Development from Research Initiatives to Center and Institute for more guidance.
Reporting And Reviewing
The Office of the Vice President for Research maintains data and information on all centers and institutes and the reports from reviews.
The oversight of and frequency of reviews resides with either the office of a vice president or with a college dean, with copies of the review sent to the Office of the Vice President for Research. The Board of Regents requires that centers/institutes be reviewed by the university every seven years.
In undertaking reviews, administering units should consider the six criteria of success (from ISU Task Force on Centers and Institutes report in 2004) as a measure of the performance of the center/institute.
See Guidelines for Center/Institute Reviews for more guidance.
Dissolution of Centers
When a center or institute fails to achieve success in extramural funding or fails to meet the expectations or benchmarks provided, the center or institute will be dissolved.
Also, just as naturally as centers and institutes are formed, they also have a natural life span and must have sunset provisions to close when they have met their usefulness to the university and research faculty.
See Dissolution of Centers or Institutes for more guidance.
See also The Interdisciplinary Center Lifecycle.
Related Board of Regents Forms
Form C, Board of Regents: Request to Establish a Center or Institute
Form D, Board of Regents: Annual Listing of Reviews of Centers and Institutes
Form L, Board of Regents: Proposal For Center or Institute Name Change
Form H, Board of Regents: Institutional Process to Request Elimination of Administrative Units
Contact
Office of the Vice President for Research
2610 Beardshear
(515) 294-6344