Dear Colleagues,
It is a true honor to have joined Michigan State University on February 16 as the Vice President for Research and Innovation. I am deeply grateful for the warm welcome I have received from colleagues in the Office of Research and Innovation (OR&I) and across the MSU community. I look forward to meeting many more of you in the weeks ahead and working together to advance and strengthen MSU’s remarkable research enterprise.
Michigan State University has experienced extraordinary growth in research in recent years – growth made possible through thoughtful long-term planning, strategic investments, and the dedication of our faculty, staff, postdocs and students. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to former Vice President for Research and Innovation, Doug Gage, for his outstanding leadership over the past five years. His work helped position MSU for continued success and impact.
I am energized by the momentum of these recent years and eager to build on it together. I would like to share with you several exciting opportunities for MSU research in the coming weeks and months and encourage you and your colleagues to participate.
MSU One Health Research Network
Earlier today, President Guskiewicz announced the creation of the MSU One Health Research Network—an initiative designed to bring together MSU researchers to address complex health challenges that require truly multidisciplinary collaboration. One Health Research extends beyond any single discipline or academic unit. MSU is uniquely positioned to lead at the intersection of human, animal, plant, and environmental health. By bringing together our collective expertise, we can address some of the most pressing challenges facing society today.
In advance of the Research Network’s formal launch, OR&I, with support from the President’s office, will launch a One Health Research Sprint, open to any MSU faculty to participate. This sprint is a structured, time-limited process for MSU faculty across colleges and disciplines to explore shared opportunities in One Health and identify a small set of research themes that MSU is well-positioned to advance soon. The sprint is designed to strengthen connections among faculty working across One Health domains, clarify MSU’s distinctive strengths, and identify where increased collaboration is needed.
Upcoming engagement opportunities include:
- Request for Information (RFI): March 12 – April 7, 2026
- Theme-Mapping Workshops: April 14 and 16, 2026
- Theme-refining Workshops: May 4 and 5, 2026
I strongly encourage all interested faculty to participate. Your ideas, insights, and expertise will help identify the research priorities where MSU can make the greatest collective impact. More information can be found on the One Health Research webpage and formal announcements and links will be shared in a separate email to all faculty.
Burden Reduction Committee
As our research portfolio continues to grow, it is equally important that our administrative systems evolve to support that growth effectively. To compete at the highest levels of research excellence, we must continually modernize and simplify processes that demand significant time and effort from faculty and staff—whether in research administration, procurement, information technology, finance, compliance, or other essential services. By improving these processes and systems, we can better support MSU researchers in doing what they do best: generating new knowledge, solving complex problems, and delivering impact at scale. To that end, I will establish a Burden Reduction Committee to identify, prioritize, and recommend strategies that streamline research administration and strengthen support services across the research lifecycle. I look forward to engaging with this committee, which will represent the broad range of functions that support the research community.
MSU 10X-Research Task Force
MSU’s research enterprise is driven by a singular purpose: to confront the world’s most urgent challenges, e.g., advancing climate resilience, transforming sustainable food systems, promoting health equity, and accelerating technological innovation. But ambitious questions demand ambitious infrastructure. MSU 10X-Research represents our commitment to building the ecosystem our scholars need to lead: state-of-the-art facilities, streamlined and responsive administration, strong interdisciplinary collaboration, and strategic partnerships that extend the reach of our work. At its core, this initiative is about multiplying our capacity to produce discoveries that improve lives and shape the future.
Over the next decade, success means our faculty can compete for the nation’s most significant research opportunities, and see administrative barriers diminish and collaborative infrastructure strengthen. Progress will be measured through multiple indicators – our competitiveness for major federal awards, the breadth and impact of our research portfolio, the strength of our partnerships, and national benchmarks such as the NSF HERD survey. Achieving a top-10 position in HERD would reflect that we have built the infrastructure and scale characteristic of the nation’s leading research institutions. But the ranking is a milestone, not the mission.
The mission is clear: when MSU faculty generate transformational ideas, they must have the resources and support necessary to pursue them boldly. This requires sustained investment, strategic prioritization, and genuine partnership between research leadership and faculty. It requires accountability not just for resources we allocate, but for whether those investments measurably improve the research environment. And it requires maintaining what makes MSU research distinctive – our commitment to both fundamental and applied discovery, community engagement, and research serving the public good – while expanding our capacity to do transformational work at scale.
To help guide this ambitious effort, we are in the process of establishing the MSU 10X-Research Task Force, a university-wide advisory body charged with shaping a comprehensive and actionable roadmap for the decade ahead. Bringing together leaders from across the institution, the task force will help position MSU to achieve this goal and further strengthen its role as a leader in research, discovery, and societal impact.
Distinguished Speaker Series on National Security
National security investments have long served as powerful catalysts for innovation. Many of the technologies that define modern life—from the internet and GPS to voice assistants such as Siri, the computer mouse and graphical user interface, autonomous driving systems, virtual reality, memory foam, and emerging breakthroughs in quantum computing—trace their origins to, or were significantly accelerated by, national security research and development. Today, the concept of national security extends far beyond traditional defense. Food and water security are national security. Reliable pharmaceutical supply chains are national security. The resilience of energy systems, infrastructure, and emerging technologies is national security. In this broader context, research universities play a vital role in generating discoveries, talent, and partnerships that strengthen the nation’s security and resilience.
Beyond its strategic importance, national security research is a powerful engine of economic growth and societal advancement. It fuels the creation of high-quality jobs, supports the development of small and emerging businesses, strengthens regional economies, and cultivates a highly skilled workforce prepared to address complex global challenges. Universities are central to this ecosystem – where fundamental discovery, technological development, and workforce preparation converge to drive innovation with national and global impact.
To engage the university community in timely discussions at the intersection of national security, innovation, and research leadership, we will convene a speaker series on national security – bringing Members of Congress, senior federal agency leaders, and nationally recognized thought leaders to MSU. The series is designed to foster meaningful dialogue on the critical role research universities play in advancing the nation’s security and economic competitiveness, and to create opportunities for dialogue about how MSU can contribute to these national priorities.
I am energized by the opportunities before us and look forward to partnering with you to further strengthen MSU’s research enterprise and advance our mission of discovery, innovation, and societal impact.
Go Green!
Sincerely,
Shashank Priya
Vice President for Research and Innovation