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Mission, Vision and Values

MissionNorthwestern University engineering researchers collaborating in a lab

The Office for Research advances the impact and eminence of Northwestern's research
programs. We champion interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and convergence, supporting
individuals and promoting communities that drive innovation and discovery across all fields. We partner with stakeholders to shape and support strategic priorities and deliver an ecosystem that
strengthens current activities and catalyzes ambitious new endeavors.

Vision

A collaborative, highly interdisciplinary ecosystem that empowers researchers to conduct
superior discovery, innovation, and translation to benefit society, elevating Northwestern as a
recognized destination for global thought leaders.

Strategic Goals

OR’s strategic goals aim to position Northwestern at the forefront of academic and translational
research and innovation, elevating our institutional impact and reputation.

  • Advance Northwestern's research priorities: Engage key stakeholders to accelerate discovery and translation. Partner with Northwestern schools to support and enable the strategic research goals they develop.
  • Expand transformative research opportunities: Leverage Northwestern's strengths to grow its research portfolio in new, transformative directions. Create novel opportunities to realize the full potential of our innovations through research, development, and translation. Support ambitious proposal development. 
  • Foster high-impact, interdisciplinary research: Promote a dynamic network of University-wide research institutes and centers that have the direction, infrastructure, resources, and connections to excel. 
  • Develop and maintain elite research facilities in partnership with schools: Deliver high-level core facilities, technologies, and research staffing to permit high-throughput, cutting-edge exploration. 
  • Strengthen crucial partnerships: Develop and maintain global partnerships that expand Northwestern's capacity to lead transformative research programs, building off strong relationships with nearby hospitals, universities, governments, national laboratories, and industry. 
  • Diversify fundraising efforts: Extend faculty-led and institutional fundraising to support research through grants, government partnerships, corporate giving, and individual philanthropy. 
  • Amplify research accomplishments: Develop strategies for promoting research accomplishments using a coherent narrative to articulate Northwestern's unique strengths, increasing eminence and expanding opportunity. 

 Operational  Objectives

To advance the Office for Research strategic goals, the office's operational objectives focus on scientific rigor and safety, efficiency, customer service, and continuous data-driven improvement. 

  • Ensure that research is safe, ethical and compliant: Promote and deliver research practices that adhere to the highest ethical and safety standards, ensuring rigor, reproducibility, transparency, and ethical treatment of all participants. 
  • Cultivate a community that delivers exceptional, customer-focused service: Foster an administrative culture that reflects and promotes our values of empathy, accountability, fairness, community, and creativity within and outside of the Office for Research. We build on these values to deliver exceptional service to our partners and opportunities for our staff.  Scale services to match the size and complexity of our current portfolio and future ambitions. 
  • Facilitate collaborative research administration and training: Collaborate with our administrative partners to create transparent and efficient operational processes based on a common knowledge base and clarity of mission. 
  • Leverage team-based metrics to ensure continual improvement: Monitor progress towards delivering responsive, efficient, and accurate system-level metrics that promote highest quality team-based service delivery.

Values

In the Office for Research, we:

  • Understand Empathy

    We treat each other with compassion, dignity, and respect through listening to learn, not to confirm our views.

  • Model Accountability

    We keep our commitments, actively participate, and take ownership of our successes and failures.

  • Ensure Fairness

    We build transparent and equitable processes, and embrace high ethical standards.

  • Embrace Community

    We build and nurture relationships between people and enable connections to grow, learn, and excel.

  • Value Creativity

    We take responsible risks and encourage autonomy to find innovative solutions and continuous improvement.

  • Helping to support these values and cultivate an inclusive workplace is the Office for Research DEI team.