Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research announces changes to better support UW–Madison’s research enterprise
Following extensive consultation, OVCR is looking to better align research priorities across campus, support university research and creative expression and offer improved services.
After months of listening, learning and analysis, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is undergoing strategic planning efforts focused on a comprehensive set of updates to ensure the University of Wisconsin–Madison maintains a strong and resilient research enterprise amid significant changes to the research environment and to meet identified areas of opportunity.
The efforts include a proposed reorganization intended to better support the research and scholarly mission of UW–Madison and grow the research enterprise and creative expression across arts and humanities, biological sciences, physical sciences and social sciences.
“Great research institutions don’t just respond to change — they plan for it, intentionally and boldly,” says Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska. “Moving forward will require clear priorities, sustained collaboration across campus and with external partners, and the flexibility to adapt in a rapidly changing research landscape—while continuing to invest strategically in people, infrastructure and ideas. With those elements in place, UW–Madison can strengthen its research enterprise to seize new opportunities despite growing fiscal pressures and increasing regulatory complexity.”
Over the course of 2025, the OVCR, with Urban Impact Advisors, a consulting firm with deep expertise in higher education research, conducted nearly 100 in-depth interviews with campus leaders and external partners, benchmarked UW–Madison against peer institutions and examined the forces currently reshaping the research landscape.
In 2026, Brzezinska also convened an advisory group including representatives from several schools and colleges, OVCR leadership and faculty governance, to ensure a broad range of perspectives are incorporated into the research office’s vision for the future.
The results of these efforts provided OVCR a foundation upon which to build, including:
- Diversifying the university’s funding portfolio to increase the volume and variety of funding sources;
- Enhancing the services OVCR offers to campus and aligning its leadership and staff to better respond to growing complexities in the research space;
- Reducing the barriers to achieve greater industry support and connection;
- Investing in a strong interdisciplinary approach and robust partnerships on and off campus to respond to complex state, national and global research challenges and to support moving discoveries from campus to market.
Advancing UW–Madison’s research excellence
“The progress of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research’s strategic plan reflects strong leadership and a clear commitment to advancing UW–Madison’s research excellence,” says Erik Iverson, CEO of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. “WARF is proud to partner in this work to help translate discovery into innovation, economic growth and meaningful impact for Wisconsin and the world.”
The proposed new OVCR structure includes creating a small team of full-time associate vice chancellors responsible for strategically focused portions of the OVCR portfolio for the entire campus; strengthening compliance and research security staffing; organizing the office around clear, mission-driven functional areas and operational needs; and creating part-time faculty fellow positions to provide strategic representation across the university’s divisions.
“The faculty fellows will be ambassadors for research and creative expression across campus with a key role in fostering innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary efforts,” Brzezinska notes.
Additionally, OVCR will launch a new research development office to provide greater resources and support for strategic research portfolio management, training and extramural grant development. In particular, OVCR is looking to better align research priorities across campus and increase the university’s competitiveness for large interdisciplinary funding opportunities.
“The OVCR reorganization’s success hinges on collaboration and engagement at every level to foster an environment that values creativity, risk‑taking and impact,” Brzezinska says. “We are working to ensure that UW–Madison has a research office that can more effectively support the research enterprise of today and is better positioned to meet the needs of tomorrow.”
She adds that these changes are an investment in organizational excellence and will allow OVCR to align with the university’s new five-year strategic framework, which was updated in April 2026.
A focus on Research and Sponsored Programs
A primary focus for OVCR is the research administration lifecycle. Research and Sponsored Programs, or RSP, will undergo updates to help clarify service expectations for core functions; improve consistency and accountability; increase transparency into workloads and status; and create a more streamlined and predictable experience for schools, colleges, departments and researchers.
RSP is developing a dashboard to serve as a central tool for monitoring and communicating operational performance. The dashboard is designed to provide greater visibility into activity volumes, workload distribution, process status and selected turnaround metrics across key service areas. It will also help highlight trends over time and support more informed conversations with campus partners about priorities, capacity and opportunities for improvement.
RSP expects to refine and expand these tools through ongoing engagement with key stakeholders in the coming weeks and months.
“While change can be challenging, we’re operating in an incredibly dynamic environment,” says Kurt McMillen, associate vice chancellor, chief research administration officer and director of RSP. “The federal research landscape is shifting rapidly, and emerging forces like artificial intelligence and other transformative technologies are reshaping how institutions must respond. This reorganization effort positions the OVCR, and UW as a whole, to adapt, evolve and continue leading at the forefront of a rapidly changing research ecosystem.”
