Getting a Jump Start 

‘Accelerator’ funding for projects and programs helps drive UAlbany’s Strategic Plan

President Havidán Rodríguez, above, introduces the University's Strategic Plan in 2018. Now, first-year Accelerator funds are helping put that plan into action. (Photo by Paul Miller)

ALBANY, N.Y. (Feb. 14, 2019) – From scholarships to fellowships, hands-on mentoring to community events, UAlbany’s Accelerator funding is putting the University’s Strategic Plan into action.

This one-time funding, announced to the campus in December, is intended to jump-start initiatives that can have an immediate impact.

The Strategic plan Advisory Council reviewed proposals, and President Havidán Rodríguez selected 14 initiatives for the first round of Accelerator funding which encompass the five priorities of the Strategic Plan: student success, research excellence, diversity and inclusion, and engagement and service.

Research Excellence is one of the core priorities of UAlbany's Strategic Plan.

Funding includes $35,000 for a new campus-wide mentoring program for faculty of color. The money is being used to create and implement a structured mentoring program designed to increase the success, satisfaction and retention of faculty of color. Another $100,000 is being used to in a new program to recruit top graduate students from under-represented minorities and to begin a visitation program to historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions.

Both of those initiatives support the University’s goal of increasing diversity and inclusion.

First-year accelerator funding also supports research, through programs to attract and fund high-quality doctoral students, and through seed funding to support researchers competing for transdisciplinary federal research grants.

Strategic Allocation of Resources (StAR)

Another $500,000 in funding is also available through the Strategic Allocation of Resources (StAR) program. Proposals are now being accepted for innovative initiatives that support the University’s Strategic Plan. Projects can receive between $5,000 and $50,000.

Submissions are being accepted through March 18, and President Rodríguez will announce the winning proposals at his Spring University Address on April 17.

Throughout the spring, Today at UAlbany will look at some of the plans and initiatives funded through the Accelerator program, and highlight how these initiatives support the University as it carries out its Strategic Plan.

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