In FY22 (Year 1), the University of Iowa distributed $12.7 million in P3 funding to eight projects. 

Seven approved projects were selected through a two-stage process that involved a call for a letter of intent (LOI), followed by an invitation to select projects to submit full proposals. The UI Strategy Team (ST) received 45 LOIs and invited 10 projects to submit full proposals.  Seven projects were recommended to Interim President Keller, who approved all seven to be put forward to the P3 Board.  The P3 Board endorsed the following projects at their June 1 meeting:

Extending Iowa’s Success in Space-Based Research Across Campus

Building on the UI’s success in space-based research, this project will draw on the expertise of faculty across multiple departments to create an interdisciplinary research enterprise, and will strengthen the institution’s ability to successfully compete for NASA funding for space missions and instruments. The project includes a space instrumentation summer program that will position the UI as the destination of choice for students interested in space research. Funded amount: $3.6M over three years.

A Campus-Wide Learning@Iowa Framework to Increase Students’ Academic Success

Most students starting college have not received guidance on how to learn for success in collegiate settings. This program will develop and implement the Learning@Iowa framework to transform the culture of learning throughout campus, spanning a variety of academic courses, residence hall settings, academic advising sessions, and more. The project uses empirically proven learning methods from cognitive science that have been demonstrated to have positive effects on student learning and progress toward degree. Funded amount: $900,000 over three years.

The Iowa Health Data Resource: Building the Future of Health Informatics at the University of Iowa

Analyzing patient data plays a central and critical role in advancing research across the broad spectrum of healthcare. This project will improve how the UI research community accesses and utilizes health science data by establishing the Iowa Health Data Resource (IHDR) on which future health informatics research initiatives can be built. This will position the UI as a national competitor for building interdisciplinary programs for next-generation research, curriculum, and student-engaged research development. Funded amount: $2.2M over three years.

Examining and Tailoring Academic Policies to Enhance Undergraduate Student Success and Equity 

This project examines the impact of academic probation and course placement at the UI, with a goal of tailoring policies and practices to promote overall student success and to foster equity in student outcomes.  Team members will collaborate with key campus stakeholders to implement changes at the collegiate level.  The project is expected to positively impact undergraduate student retention and graduation rates.  Funded amount: $114,000 over two years.

Closing the Gap: Experiential Educational for All Undergraduates at Iowa 

Experiential education provides students with opportunities to apply learning to real-world contexts, while also fostering career preparation and improving job placement rates. This project seeks to close gaps in student participation by assessing the landscape of experiential education and barriers to student participation. The project also will create a course tailored for all second-year students that will provide an experiential education component and engage students in career exploration.  Funded amount: $540,000 over two years.

Seeding Excellence: Strengthening the University as a Destination for Research and Scholarship 

This program aims to sustain growth of the research enterprise by providing competitive pilot funding in areas across campus that will strategically advance institutional priorities. By providing unique opportunities for faculty collaboration and support, the project should contribute to successful recruitment and retention of faculty in areas of distinction.  Funding allocation will span interdisciplinary research grants; early career faculty research support; community-engaged scholarship funding; and diversity, equity, and inclusion funds to supplement research opportunities for students from historically underfunded groups.  Funded amount: $4.0M over two years.

Equity in Health Science and Practice

This project will engage faculty, staff, students, and community partners in the conduct of rigorous health equity research and the translation of research findings into community-based interventions. Expected outcomes include published interventional approaches for advancing health equity in the state of Iowa, including on-campus and community-based infrastructure for future pandemic-related and non-pandemic-related health equity research.  Funded amount: $759,000 over three years.

Read more in Iowa Now

Additionally, the off-cycle project “Academic Analytics Subscription” was awarded funding of $579,500 over three years in FY 2022 following a review by the UI Strategy Team, recommendation to the university president, and endorsement by the P3 Board. 

Academic Analytics Subscription

Academic Analytics builds web-based products that provide comparative benchmarking against peer institutions as well as benchmarking within the University of Iowa itself.  It is widely considered to be the industry standard for higher education analytics and has myriad applications including, but not limited to, benchmarking, strategic planning, identification of honorific awards for faculty, identification of institutional strengths and weaknesses, faculty collaborations, and faculty recruitment and retention.  Many peer institutions use this product for the aforementioned applications. The AAU also uses this product to gather data to assist with its ranking of institutions. 

Funded amount:  $579,500 over three years

If you have questions about the funded Year 1 projects, please contact Kathy Andrews at kathryn-andrews@uiowa.edu or Mirra Anson at mirra-anson@uiowa.edu.