The office of Research and Strategic Partnerships is devoted to growing PSU’s public-private partnerships and helping its researchers attain funding by facilitating the grant process. Led by Jonathan Fink, the office is relatively new to the university; its creation in a time of economic uncertainty marks it as a sign of PSU’s long-term goals.
The office of Research and Strategic Partnerships is devoted to growing PSU’s public-private partnerships and helping its researchers attain funding by facilitating the grant process. Led by Jonathan Fink, the office is relatively new to the university; its creation in a time of economic uncertainty marks it as a sign of PSU’s long-term goals.
Some of the components of what now constitute RSP did exist prior to the creation of the new department, but they were augmented and formally unified in 2010. RSP Communications Director Jeremy Dalton wrote in an email: “As our research activity grows, so too does our reputation as a leading urban research institution, drawing dynamic faculty and passionate students.”
Being an urban research university “means having faculty whose research is deeply integrated with their teaching as well as having research that directly addresses urban challenges and opportunities,” said PSU President Wim Wiewel in an email. RSP was created to improve PSU’s ability to meet those standards, and grant writing is an example of how the new department will aid future research. “Having faculty do all [the grant writing] on their own does not make the best use of their unique skills and scarce time,” Wiewel said.
Dalton indicated that research expenditures—a key metric in measuring the volume of externally funded research activity—have increased from $40 million to $65 million in the past three years: Researchers at PSU are doing more and acquiring more external funding. “This translates into more publications from faculty, more graduate assistantships for students, more intellectual property for external licensing,” Dalton said.
By investing in research, PSU also looks to improve its reputation. “We’re trying to grow this university into something that is distinct and excellent and will be a magnet for really good students,” Fink said.
Fink believes that this focus on strengthening research comes as a great benefit to PSU’s current students as well. Fink joined PSU to lead the office of RSP. He came here from Arizona State University, where for 10 years he worked in a similar capacity. He guided ASU through a transition comparable to the one PSU currently faces and said that an ASU diploma today is much more valuable than it was 10 years ago.
“A lot of that has to do with the improved reputation of the school, and this has a lot to do with the research that is done,” Fink said.
Undergraduates at PSU may not be reading the research papers that their professors are publishing, but research does enhance a university’s esteem. And Fink believes that students sense that and respond to it.
“This is the path that PSU is on and we’re trying to accelerate it,” Fink said. “We want to get really good professors here so that they can bring their cutting edge knowledge into the classroom, and students can get exposed to that, so that when they get out they’ve got something marketable.”
Other developments attributable to RSP are more palpable. PSU’s partnerships with Portland General Electric and Intel, managed by the office of RSP, helped provide funding for the renewable energy research lab and the environmental science teaching lab in PSU’s newly renovated Science Research and Teaching Center. The electric vehicle charging stations located on the PSU campus are also a product of the university’s partnership with PGE.
PSU has a “buzz” that attracted Fink. “It’s a place on the rise,” he said, and he likes being on the start-up side. “PSU is unusual for having a reputation of partnering well in its local environment. Every university is trying to do that, but [PSU], for its age and its rankings, is ahead of the curve.”
