Chapman is committed to the teacher-scholar model and will continue to emphasize a student-centered culture. Faculty research and student-faculty research collaboration play an important role in in this environment. By providing the infrastructure necessary to cultivate faculty research, Chapman is able to attract outstanding faculty from top Universities all over the world. These faculty bring research and creative talents to the university, and allow the integration of the knowledge creation process into the classroom and laboratory, enhancing the educational experience of our students.
Our initiatives to expand and support our research and technology infrastructure include the following:
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Faculty development. Create/enhance the Faculty Opportunity Fund (seed grant program) to provide funding for exploratory research initiatives. These exploratory studies are often necessary to demonstrate feasibility in order to attract external grant funding.
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Student research. Provide increased support for graduate student research –particularly Ph.D. students – as well as increased funding for the Office of Undergraduate Research.
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Sponsored research. Increase support for sponsored research with the goal of improving the rate of success in obtaining external grants and increasing the amount of external funding.
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Economic development. In collaboration with the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics, establish processes and develop opportunities for commercialization and industry partnerships.
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Research technology. Invest in high-performance computing resources to support computational sciences and engineering as well as existing research centers – the Institute for Quantum Studies and the new Institute for the Study of Brain Behavior, for example. Continue investment in the digital arts to maintain our current leadership position. Pursue leading-edge scientific developments in genomics, drug development, advanced health professional training and the basic sciences that underlie healthy living.
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Library of tomorrow. Invest in technology that will transform our Leatherby Libraries into the library of the future. This will begin with a period of self-study, in which we will gather input from students and faculty and study innovations at other universities as well as corporate information centers such as Google.