Research

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

When it comes to research, the Hollywood image that flashes to mind is a white-coated, white-haired professor, hidden away in a university laboratory, peering intently into a microscope, unlocking the secrets of the universe.

In the real world — and on the IUPUI campus — the reality is far different. There still are laboratories, white coats and microscopes. But the secrets being unlocked are found in many other settings, from archaeological digs to decades-old letters and manuscripts to rivers and reservoirs.

The quest for knowledge knows no boundaries.

For Chancellor Charles Bantz, IUPUI is perfectly positioned to achieve two major goals of university research: to build the body of knowledge in many given fields; and to help people improve their lives.

“As an urban research university, it is essential that we advance knowledge for the city, the state and our world,” said Bantz. “We need to do more because the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana need that from us.”

The impact of research at IUPUI is shaping many areas of life, from health care to economic development, from cultural activities to recreation. Support for investigations ranges from thousands of dollars for specific, targeted projects all the way up to the single biggest research project to hit IUPUI in its 35-year history: the Indiana Genomics Initiative (INGEN).

INGEN was launched in 2000 through a $105 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., and is intertwined with Biocrossroads, a partnership linking the Indianapolis city and Indiana state governments with Eli Lilly & Co. and other private concerns, as well as IU, Purdue and IUPUI. The Lilly Endowment augmented that original award in 2003 with an additional $50 million to help the partnership foster growth in the life sciences, which city and state leaders hope to use as the foundation for dramatic economic growth.

“INGEN really catalyzed things in the research community on our campus,” said Dr. Ora Pescovitz, the executive associate dean for research affairs at the IU School of Medicine. “It immediately began attracting some of the best research minds in the country to IUPUI and opened whole new areas for us to explore.”

Methods change

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.”

The scope of INGEN and related genomics-oriented projects also brought new demands on IUPUI’s research infrastructure, said Mark Brenner, IUPUI’s vice chancellor for research and graduate education.

“Our people had to change the way they went about research,” he said. “Instead of working alone, or in small groups within a school or department, they had to think in larger terms.”

The close, tight-knit groups have given way to teams featuring people from two, three, even four schools—or other campuses, even other businesses.

“Exchanging ideas has always been at the heart of research,” said Brenner. “In days gone by, that meant collaborating with the person next door—only now, thanks to technology, ‘next door’ can be on the far side of the world!”

“Multi-institution work is on the rise,” Brenner said. “We can move incredible amounts of data almost instantaneously, and people in completely different sites can attack the same information from different points of view.”

The volume of information some projects generate has its own imperatives, too, Brenner added. It has challenged IUPUI to upgrade all facets of technology in order to make research effective, timely and productive.

“Information technology’s growth goes hand-in-hand with the growth of our research success,” Brenner said. “You just can’t have the one without the other!”

New insights

“The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.”

Research across disciplinary lines has become commonplace at IUPUI, with people from two, three, even four or more schools involved in projects.

“That gives our research teams insights from many different fields,” Brenner noted. “Sometimes, it’s helpful to use an engineering approach to solve a medical research problem, or vice versa.”

Pescovitz agreed wholeheartedly. “Interdisciplinary collaborations have completely changed the way we do research,” she said. “No one person can do it all, and it has become so obvious to us that now we require our researchers to at least explore recruiting people from other schools or disciplines in their proposals.”

Pescovitz, Brenner and Bantz all cited the benefits of partnerships that once might have seemed unthinkable—Purdue entities, such as the schools of Engineering and Technology or of Science, teaming with such IU entities as the School of Medicine—but now are routine.

“It’s one of the big reasons we’ve had the growth we’ve had over the past decade,” said Brenner. The numbers his office gathers back him up: IUPUI’s research dollars have increased from $98 million in 1993-94, to $266 million in 2002-03, a 171 percent increase in a decade.

The dynamic growth of research on the IUPUI campus has far-reaching consequences. Using a standard formula — “each $1 million of research generates up to 38 or 39 new jobs,” Brenner says — IUPUI-based projects have helped create more than 6,000 jobs in central Indiana. The impact grows dramatically when you consider the effect new treatments, procedures, products and more have in people’s lives.

Different forms

Photo courtesy of NASA

“Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.”

Research at IUPUI takes many forms. Some researchers are involved in basic science, building a strong foundation for many fields of future research. Others tackle clinical science, focused on particular diseases or conditions. Still others build the knowledge base that improves teaching and learning.

But it doesn’t stop there. IUPUI investigators gather information that helps us understand our past, and helps public and private decision-makers deal with the demands of the future. And campus researchers work with private firms, studying treatments, mechanisms or procedures that will make life easier, better or safer for people.

“When people talk about universities and research, the tendency is to focus on basic science,” said Bantz. “But when I talk about IUPUI, I also emphasize scholarship and creative activity. Some people don’t consider scholarship and creative work as true research, but it all generates new knowledge.”

If IUPUI intends to remain one of the nation’s leading urban universities, it’s vital that campus researchers use their skills to challenge future students, teachers, business leaders and more.

“Research is an integral part of teaching and learning,” added Bantz. “New knowledge is always a worthwhile goal, but it’s most valuable when it is applied to the books and courses that shape the future of higher education. At IUPUI, there is a dynamic energy level that comes from faculty working closely with leading-edge researchers. The power of research helps move teaching and learning forward.”

Growth all over

“Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.”

Years of record-breaking growth has kept the School of Medicine at the forefront of research at IUPUI, with 75 percent or more of research dollars and projects focused on medicine, health or both. That level of success makes Bantz proud.

“Areas like genomics and DNA are the kind of quantum leaps forward that often turn the world of research on its ear, and open up new directions and even new fields that IUPUI researchers are eager—and well positioned—to tackle,” said Bantz.

Brenner said medicine’s success and “spirit of discovery motivates researchers. It has become contagious here.” That spirit makes him optimistic about the growth of research in other IUPUI schools, such as dentistry, nursing, engineering and technology, informatics and more.

Bantz also is enthusiastic about research outside the health-related projects.

“We are doing exciting work in the social sciences and the humanities,” Bantz said. “We’re at the heart of research into non-profits and the impact of philanthropy on our society. And we’re seeing significant work in creative fields like music and art as well.”

Brenner said many—even inside the university community—aren’t fully aware of the scope of IUPUI-based projects.

“We incorporate service through the clinical trials our researchers run, and also scholarship through investigations geared to enhancing knowledge within a given field, in order to expand our teaching in that field,” the vice chancellor said. “We also conduct a lot of philanthropic research here at IUPUI, and the Polis Center is heavily involved in community-related research,” he adds. “Then there are our researchers in the Institute for American Thought, whose work with the Frederick Douglass Papers, the Peirce Edition Project and the Santayana Edition are gaining national and international attention.”

Future is bright

“Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.”

IUPUI’s research future is bright, despite ongoing concerns over reductions in federal funds for research and a campus that has limited space for new labs or research areas.

The former concerns Pescovitz, since roughly half of the nearly $190 million in grants and contracts for medical research comes from the National Institutes of Health, and competition for NIH support is always fierce. “We’ll just have to work harder,” she said.

The space concerns are being handled—at least in part—by a growing number of partnerships that involve campus researchers. Entities such as Biocrossroads have facilities off campus, such as the Downtown Canal.

“We also face challenges in finding the resources our top people will need to continue current projects or start others,” said Brenner. Launching projects and teams requires that “we equip and staff labs properly, and money to do the initial research that will attract the attention of prospective funding sources.”

Bantz, Brenner and Pescovitz believe the future is bright for another key reason: research stars that have made IUPUI their new home. Those recent additions “have established a vision of the future for their schools, programs and fields,” said Bantz. “And people who are seeking new opportunities are eager to join those visionaries, because they share that dream.”

The commitment to campus support—through technology and infrastructure, creating new centers to provide a solid base of inquiry, financial support and more—also is important. And the development of Indianapolis also is an increasingly strong lure to potential recruits.

“The city has become a lively, vibrant city for those we recruit, and the partnerships we have been able to form with city and state leaders mean that there is an excellent chance that their work will make a difference,” said Bantz.

Research’s impact

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

The opportunity to help shape the world of tomorrow is a powerful attraction, Bantz believes.

“Universities have always had a key role in translating research into the real world,” he said. “We help bridge that gap between theory and practice. It’s part of our job to make the complex simple and understandable, so our decision-makers are able to apply what we’ve learned to the challenges we face.”

The spirit of inquiry that permeates every school at IUPUI plays “a big, big role” in attracting new students, new staff and new faculty to the campus, Pescovitz believes.

“They come here for what we have and to be part of what we potentially will be,” she said. “The top people we’re attracting know what they want to achieve, and they believe this is the best place to make it happen. That’s what’s pervasive about this campus: the sense of purpose, the sense of mission. It’s dramatic, and it’s exciting, because it affects more than just those in laboratories. It affects us all.”

Bantz expects the vibrant pro-research climate to continue indefinitely.

“The energy and vision we have at IUPUI is creating an intellectual community that challenges all of us, particularly those who are deeply involved in shaping the world that lies ahead,” he said. “IUPUI is always eager to tackle the unknown.”