Theme II: National Prominence

Distinguish VCU as a preeminent urban public research university by growing areas of strength as researchers, innovators, and educators.

Goal 1

Increase School-wide productivity in high impact research and scholarship.

M.O. II.1.1

Increase the average number of peer-reviewed journal publications per teaching and research (T&R) faculty member. (KPI)

M.O. II.1.2

Increase the School’s ranking for NIH funding (AACP and BRIMR ranking). (KPI)

M.O. II.1.3

Increase the number of faculty who apply for internal funding (e.g., Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research [CCTR] and PRIP, Massey Cancer Center, and region-restricted funding).

M.O. II.1.4

Maintain a fair and transparent salary offset and overhead policy, which maintains current rate of return to investigators as an incentive.

M.O. II.1.5

Assign early career faculty with senior mentors who will assist the faculty member with career choices and promotion / tenure, and to improve the quality of grant applications.

Action Steps

• Explore the feasibility of developing a mentoring team that meets regularly to guide early career faculty members.
• Evaluate specific mentoring needs for faculty from under-represented backgrounds.

M.O. II.1.6

Fully utilize the SARC to enhance the quality of research proposals by providing study section critiques of grant proposals.

M.O. II.1.8

Secure funding (e.g., HEETF, S-10 grants, and other outside funding) to acquire state-of-the-art research equipment.

Goal 2

Increase and diversify the School’s sponsored research.

M.O. II.2.1

Evaluate the research portfolio of the School, assess alignment with the VCU research strategic plan, and devise a plan for enhancement.

Action Steps

• Identify and implement methods to enhance collaborative research.
• Increase faculty participation in multidisciplinary centers and institutes (e.g., Massey Cancer Center, CCTR, and the Institute for Structural Biology Drug Discovery and Development [ISB3D]).
• Develop faculty goals and support to achieve extramural funding for all research faculty.
• Encourage faculty to include under-represented groups in clinical research and identify opportunities for funded research in health disparities, in alignment with Federal guidelines (e.g., NIH) and the VCU Research Strategic Plan.

M.O. II.2.2

Implement strategies to expand and provide additional support for the School’s Institute and Centers.

Action Steps

• Advocate for Institute and Centers support with VCU leadership.

M.O. II.2.3

Increase publications and our national/international presentations at meetings.

Action Steps

• Identify sources from which to secure funds for faculty travel and publication costs.
• Identify extramurally funded collaborative research groups at VCU to incorporate the expertise and skill set of all School of Pharmacy faculty.
• Fully utilize School of Pharmacy and University communication and public relations mechanisms for faculty to share news of their accomplishments.

M.O. II.2.4

Develop the infrastructure of the CPPI to enhance its competitiveness in securing internal and extramural funding.

Action Steps

• Increase participants in the network of practice partners.
• Create a research plan for national prominence.
• Offer a monthly seminar series to stimulate scholarly discussion and foster collaboration among clinical faculty, researchers, and external partners.
• Offer a feasibility grant program to provide funding for research that will demonstrate proof-of-concept, feasibility, implementation, or validation of novel pharmacy practice models.
• Identify and disseminate research funding opportunities offered by federal, state, and local agencies as well as foundations.
• Obtain industry contracts or internal grants to purchase dataset(s) for graduate students and faculty to utilize for research and pilot data for extramural grant proposals.
• Create opportunities for student pharmacists to engage in research and learn about pharmacy practice innovations.
• Map out a strategic plan and a business model for achieving the mission of the Center. This includes identifying:
  • Primary customers and partners of the CPPI
  • Initiatives that provide value propositions that cannot be easily duplicated by competing options
  • Revenue models that cover the costs of the CPPI
  • Additional needed resources and competencies

M.O. II.2.5

Develop a plan for the Center for Compounding Practice and Research (CCPR) to be a financially sustainable source of collaborative teaching and research.

Action Steps

• Create interactive training modules for remote learning that complement hands-on training sessions to develop and enhance the knowledge and skill set of students, clinicians, and researchers.
• Assess emerging trends in the profession of pharmacy and design new innovative continuing education courses to meet the needs of our practitioners including the provision of programs intended to assist practitioners in building their compounding skillsets enabling enhanced qualifications for transitioning into other pharmacy job opportunities.
• Design a didactic and hands-on elective course that is strategically designed to incorporate nonsterile and sterile compounding.
• Engage with interprofessional institutions of learning to offer didactic and hands-on sterile compounding lectures to students.
• Participate in faculty development opportunities to ensure faculty, staff, and other resources are appropriate to achieve goals, required work and future endeavors of the CCPR.
• Expand CCPR marketing reach nationwide.
• Develop partnerships with compounding pharmacies and health systems to provide a hybrid compounding training program for employee orientation training and recertification.
• Engage with the scientific community through contributions to research in scholarship of teaching and learning and compounding science.

M.O. II.2.6

Grow and expand the Center for and PhD program in Pharmaceutical Engineering at VCU.

Action Steps

• Determine short-term and long-term goals for the Center for Pharmaceutical Engineering and Science at VCU.
  • Develop a goal to secure an institutional training grant in the next few years.
• Identify funding for two new Faculty positions to support the research and educational mission of the Pharmaceutical Engineering Program.

M.O. II.2.7

Continue growth of facilities, resources and investigatorship in the ISB3D at VCU.

Action Steps

• Expand High-Throughput Screening facility for discovery of bioactive agents.
• Expand Biomolecular Interaction facility through acquisition of biophysical instruments including surface Plasmon resonance, isothermal calorimetry, and biolayer interferometry.
• Expand membership to VCU faculty members interested in drug discovery and development.
• Enhance outreach of ISB3D in terms of serving community-at-large.
• Recruit faculty members to advance Institute goals for greater collaboration with the Massey Cancer Center.

M.O. II.2.8

Through the School’s Geriatric Pharmacotherapy Program develop and promote translational research efforts that are focused on improving the quality of life for older Virginians.

Action Steps

• Develop research proposal competitive for NIH funding by NIA.
• Expand School presence in Richmond Health and Wellness Program (RHWP) and the VCU Health Hub at 25th.

Goal 3

Increase the commercialization of intellectual property and University-based technologies to advance innovation and economic development.

M.O. II.3.1

Faculty and staff commercialize intellectual property and technology.

Action Steps

• Ensure that faculty and staff are fully informed about intellectual property/tech transfer.
• Provide more opportunities for faculty to learn about VCU Innovation Gateway.
• Include information about VCU Innovation Gateway in new faculty orientation.

M.O. II.3.2

Facilitate and enhance/expand partnerships with industry for intellectual property development.

Action Steps

• Increase visibility of the School’s intellectual property.
• Explore and publicize methods to reduce barriers to industry funding such as VCU indirect costs.

Goal 4

Enhance faculty involvement in the Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR).

M.O. II.4.1

All faculty are informed of opportunities with CCTR to enhance research.

M.O. II.4.2

Increase faculty involvement in the CCTR.

Action Steps

• Determine what the School can do to more fully engage in CCTR activities.
• Invite the leadership of the CCTR to discuss opportunities for School faculty and graduate students on a regular basis.

Goal 5

Ensure that the faculty and staff are appropriate to achieve the mission.

M.O. II.5.1

Determine that appropriate individuals are in place to perform the required work of the School of Pharmacy.

Action Steps

• Departments annually review current needs in faculty and staff and make hiring plans known to department faculty.

M.O. II.5.2

Ensure faculty, staff, and other resources are appropriate to support the mission, strategic plan, and future endeavors of the School.

Goal 6

Improve buildings and research facilities in order to provide students quality research training that prepares them for careers in a 21st century academic, government, or industry research environment.

M.O. II.6.1

Renovate existing research space to improve functionality, quality, and safety.

Action Steps

• Present a prioritized list of research facility improvement needs to VCU administration.
• Request VCU funding to make the necessary laboratory improvements.

M.O. II.6.2

Create a process to ensure that all buildings used by faculty, staff, and students are safe and functional, and present an image compatible with the School’s mission.

Action Steps

• Assess facilities for appropriate and safe working conditions.

M.O. II.6.3

Advance plans for establishing a new state-of-the-art home building for the School in the next 5-10 years.

Action Steps

• Develop plans to secure space for School of Pharmacy faculty members in the proposed VCU buildings.

Goal 7

Provide a service-oriented infrastructure within the School’s Office of Finance and Administration to support and enhance faculty and staff productivity and efficiency.

M.O. II.7.1

Provide all departments and offices timely access to financial reports and budgets.

Action Steps

• Provide annual budgets at the beginning of each fiscal year.
• Provide departments, offices, and faculty with monthly fiscal reports, including variance from budget.
• Create a transparent accounting system for faculty and staff to access accounts.

M.O. II.7.2

Create an online policy and procedure manual for all school policies and procedures.

Action Steps

• Ensure all School policies are congruent with university policies.

M.O. II.7.3

Develop a tracking system for finance, human resources, and other service requests to the business office to verify requests are completed.

M.O. II.7.4

University policies and procedures for recruitment, retention, and professional development will be followed.

Action Steps

• Develop policies/procedures and best practices for search committees, on-boarding, and off-boarding.

M.O. II.7.5

Implement and support University-wide Finance and HR initiatives (e.g., Budget Redesign, HR Redesign, Cascading Goals).

M.O. II.7.6

Maintain and expand technical skills through professional development.

M.O.II7.7

Develop and implement a Business Continuity Management plan in alignment with VCU policy.

Goal 8

Provide an infrastructure within the School’s Development Office to support and enhance targeted fund raising.

M.O. II.8.1

Improve the tracking of current and past post-doctoral residents, fellows, and trainees including contact information and employment status.

Action Steps

• All student information is uploaded from Banner into RADAR, the University’s development database, upon graduation.
• Development Office coordinates collecting contact information in the fall following graduation.
• Develop a procedure for each department to provide information on all current and past post-doctoral trainees at the time of hire and departure from the university.

M.O. II.8.2

Maintain total donors at 650 or more each year. (KPI)

M.O. II.8.3

Secure more than $1.75 million in private funds received as gifts or pledges. (KPI)

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