Increases in research grants, equipment upgrades and new funding programs were among the celebrated advances at the Research, Innovation and Engagement Town Hall Meeting.
On Dec. 2, the Research Office hosted their last town hall meeting at which six Oakland University faculty members received research awards, including a new lifetime award for excellence in laboratory support.
“Research means faculty success,” David A. Stone, Vice President for Research, said. “Our ability to give you the capability to do the work of discovery and innovation that you do, to attract more high-quality faculty, to retain high-quality faculty, that’s the very first reason that we have the research mission.”
During the 2024 fiscal year, 191 research proposals were submitted by OU faculty, grants paid for 190 graduate assistantships and OU was the fastest growing R2 in the country, Stone explained.
“I have noticed, reviewing surveys every year, that when Ora [Hirsch Pescovitz] was at [the University of] Michigan, they were number two in the country,” Stone said. “Now that she’s not at Michigan, they’re number four. We, on the other hand, have tripled research since she’s gotten here.”
External funding tripled since 2020 reaching $22.5 million this year, a historical accomplishment at the university, Stone explained. Meanwhile, research proposals topped $100 million in funding requests for the first time.
“We submitted 32 more grants last year than we had the year before,” Stone said. “190 has been pretty much our peak. Before that, we bumped up and down around the 190s, but we have never been at 223.”
Beyond the grants, awards and proposal records during 2024, the Innovation Center also opened its doors in May to increase the faculty’s ability to conduct research and expand collaborations with industry partnerships. The Laboratory for Outdoor Research, Agriculture, Conservation and Sustainability (LORACS) also culminated eight years of building efforts.
“I call that Mary Jamieson’s Crystal Palace, and I’m really excited about the work she and others are going to do out there,” Stone said. “Having this research space on the east side of campus, we’re just thrilled about it, and we want to do more outside work, ecological work, plant work.”
The installation of a high-capacity boiler will also allow for a cag washer and tunnel washer at OU, allowing for the resuming of operations that had been down for two years.
Internal funding programs also saw a renovation with three new programs announced last year.
The first was the International Research Experience for students to study abroad in Scotland, England, Costa Rica and Ghana. The second was Professor Smith Goes to Washington, allowing faculty to consult with federal agency staff. The UN Sustainability Goals is the last research funding program to encompass all areas of research at the university.
“[The programs] further the idea of a collaboration of which we hope to spawn funded research opportunities that are collaborative with other institutions,” Stone said.
The research office awarded six researchers and one department with glass plaques:
- Zhe Wang received the President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz Innovation Award for his co-innovation on six pending or awarded patents
- Taras Oleksyk received the Researcher of the Year Award for his $3 million in research funding
- Jun Chen received the Most Research Active Award and the Xiangqun Zeng Most Active Grant Seeker Award for his five external awarded grants and eight federal proposals submitted
- Michael Kranak received the Outstanding Junior Investigator Award for 17 submitted proposals and for more than 50 publications since coming to OU in 2020
- Huirong Fu received the Research-Led Teaching Award for her $1.7 million in funding and support of student research
- Kathie Lesich received the Kathie Lesich Award for Excellence in Laboratory Support
- The Biological Sciences department received the Outstanding Research Department Award for their 16-funding project and more than $7 million in funding
“I just wanted it to be known to the community that there are people like Kathy who actually are responsible for our ability to get grants, our ability to publish papers. She should be recognized for that,” Charles B. Lindemann, a retired professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, said.
