Missouri State University will continue to enhance the institutional culture and environment that will support and promote research and community engagement. To this end, there are several key tactics that will be employed to make progress in expanding the capability and commitment to research. They include:
- Faculty workload – Policies will be implemented at the college and departmental level that utilize flexibility in assignment among faculty according to talents and productivity measures (publications, grants, students mentored).
- Reward systems – In the interest of increased productivity and cooperation, the faculty reward system should move toward a more aggregate outcome that rewards and encourages the achievements of the department or unit.
- Student mentoring – Faculty workload policies and rewards will be developed that promote involvement of students (undergraduate and graduate) in research. Likewise, systems will be developed to track this type of student involvement.
- External funding – Policies and reward systems will be adopted that encourage efforts to obtain external funding of all types – research, education and other community projects.
- Centers and institutes – Productivity measures will be developed and applied to evaluate the performance of University-recognized centers and institutes. Those falling below specified standards should be closed, while productive centers should receive additional investment from the University.
- Library – Access to scholarly literature will be increased through continuing investment in selected electronic resources and participation in state and national cooperative endeavors that facilitate making resource literature available.
- External funding infrastructure – Maintain the grants management and research compliance infrastructures necessary to compete for and administer grants and contracts from a variety of external funding sources.