Welcome to my new periodic communication, the " Provost’s Pulse." I intend to publish these ‘pulses’ perhaps twice a semester and focus on one or two topics that are of broad interest to our academic community. In this inaugural issue, I focus on my new position as the Provost of Florida Tech and discuss my observations of the research infrastructure at the university. Please remember, while I want to share my thinking in this communication, I also want to hear from you—so feel free to drop me a line or let’s have a chat.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

I am very grateful to serve as your new provost and am excited to be at Florida Tech. I support the new strategic plan to make Florida Tech one of the nation’s best STEM institutions. The university is on a positive trajectory, and I want to contribute to this momentum. In my first semester here, I have managed to meet the faculty in small groups, in departmental or similar-type meetings in every academic unit of the university. I even got some great answers to the question asking faculty to give a “fun fact” about themselves! It seems that we have lots of soccer players, photographers, nature lovers, among others. We also had some discussions about faculty concerns and issues. I appreciated the open and positive dialogue and will work hard to mitigate the concerns.

STAYING CONNECTED

President Nicklow and I meet with the student government leaders and the faculty senate president monthly. We also have been attending the first part of the faculty senate meetings, and these have been constructive and informative. Next semester, I am inviting the new faculty in small groups to an informal lunch so I can learn about their perspectives and their ambitions so I can help them succeed.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

As a plant space biologist, I love living on the Space Coast. I have set up my research lab and have started mentoring undergraduates who work with me on plant space biology. Also, I have been working on establishing stronger and new collaborations with NASA and the space industry. Recently, a group of us met with Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro. She is very enthusiastic about providing opportunities for our students and faculty to do collaborative research. I also have met with the Space Force leadership as well as with officials from Blue Origin. Again, this company hires our graduates and can provide exciting internships for our students.

FLORIDA TECH AS A RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

As we all know, Florida Tech is an R2 national research university: "Doctoral University: High Research Activity." Thus, research is important to us and is integral to our mission as we want to create a conducive environment for inquiry and discovery.

One measure (but not the only measure) of research productivity is research expenditures. For FY24, the total research expenditure was $15.7 million. Given the quality of our faculty and the fact that we are a STEM-based institution, our external funding should be higher. So, I also have spent my first semester trying to better understand research and the infrastructure that supports research at our university. 

Of course, we have a number of super-star researchers who do well with external funding and are pushing the boundaries of the frontiers of knowledge. However, I’d like to get more faculty funded. I also believe in leadership by example and recently have served as co-PI on a $2.3 million grant from NIST to support the improvement of Florida Tech's high-performance computing (HPC) facility. 

Based on my observations and comments from others, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) helps the faculty with research grant budgets. However, there is limited support for grant proposal development. The critical steps in proposal development are project conceptualization and strategic implementation. Well-crafted, funded proposals take time to write and frequently require proof-of-concept data. Perhaps the most critical part of a successful proposal is getting feedback, making edits, and revising the proposal prior to submission.

SUCCEEDING TOGETHER

To jump-start this process, I have engaged the services of the Hanover Group to increase the quality, volume, and success rates of our external grant applications. They have a great track record in helping faculty to identify, craft, and submit the most competitive proposals. With the help of our deans, we have identified a cohort for the Hanover Grants Academy, where the selected faculty members will receive individualized mentoring on the grant-writing process over the course of a year. We will run these academies for the next three years—each with a new cohort. The long-term goal is that if this approach is successful, we will start these proposal development services in-house at Florida Tech.

I also want to look at all aspects of research incentives, support, and administration at our university to make sure we are following established best practices.  To this end, we are bringing in Dr. Terri Shelton, a former vice president for research and economic development, for a site visit in late January to evaluate our research enterprise.  She will be meeting with many groups, including our recently re-established faculty research council.To aid in our evaluation, our faculty recently received a one-question survey on the research infrastructure at our university. We look forward to Dr. Shelton’s visit and recommendations to continue to improve research at Florida Tech.

STRATEGIC SYNERGY

All of these activities are closely aligned with Pillar 2 (Programs Driven by Innovation) of the university’s strategic plan. Specifically, I hope to “expand and diversify externally funded research programs to become a strong R2 research institution.” We have a strong faculty, and any improvements and changes to OSP research infrastructure will help them achieve their full potential. I am convinced that if we all work together and use external and internal analyses, we will become a stronger research university. I look forward to working with the faculty to achieve these important goals!

I look forward to working with the faculty to achieve these important goals! Thanks for your attention and for welcoming me so warmly to Florida Tech.

John Z. Kiss, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs
L3Harris Professor