David Guston, Foundation Professor and Associate Vice Provost, School for the Future of Innovation in Society in the Rob Walton College of Global Futures, is principal investigator on Using Foresight Methods to Imagine the Futures of the Research University, a new $50,000 grant awarded by Sloan Foundation. Co-investigators on this grant are Bea Rodriguez-Fransen, Assistant Research Professor in Principled Innovation, Global Futures Office of Research Development and Strategy, and Lauren Keeler, Associate Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society.
Says Guston: While research universities are working hard to manage current crises, our project hopes to give them time and space to articulate visions for where they want to be 20-25 years from now.
Says Rodriguez-Fransen: Aside from providing a sanctuary for their imagination, we hope that gathering people invested in the futures of the US research university, with diverse perspectives, will strengthen their relationships with one another. Building toward better futures is relational work, and the connections and ideas that emerge from these conversations are what will sustain our collective efforts.
Says Keeler: While it is certainly a time of disruption for higher education, this presents a unique opportunity to really interrogate how research universities can contribute to public value in the future. This project is meant to use this moment of introspection to catalyze new ways of thinking among higher education leadership and provide a platform for sharing those ideas within and among universities.
PROJECT GOAL
The goal of the project is to offer a more forward-looking, strategic set of framings and goals – and therefore potentially different outcomes – to the current approach to anticipating alternative futures of research universities and, in turn, the scientific research activities conducted at these institutions.
OBJECTIVES
Our strategy to achieve this goal principally involves using creative foresight methods to answer the research question, “What do leaders within the higher education community want research universities to look like circa 2050?” Our multi-institutional, multi-sectoral research, engagement, and dissemination project engages higher education leadership to think more concretely about the medium-term strategy and futures of their institutions.
PROPOSED ACTIVITIES
To meet these objectives, the project team will:
1) Interview ~100 leaders from research universities and other higher education organizations;
2) Use futures-related methods to understand the literature and the interviews;
3) Reflect this understanding back to a share of the interviewees in a scenario development workshop;
4) Generate narratives, storyboards, and other ways of understanding potential pathways toward desirable futures for research universities;
5) Partner with several institutions at multiple stages of the project;
6) Create a Community of Practice and pilot a leadership program to reinforce this approach and generate ideas and opportunities for implementation in an ongoing fashion.
EXPECTED PRODUCTS
Products will include: a report on the interviews and other analyses for input into the workshop, storybooks or storyboard for roadmapping desirable futures from the workshop; backcasting templates for identifying actions directed at those futures; videos and other narratives that encapsulate the storybooks/storyboards for broader circulation; dissemination events coordinated with partners in multiple locations (DC, LA, etc.); and establishing and engaging an ongoing Community of Practice and pilot leadership training. We also anticipate that additional professional and academic publications will emerge to complement these practitioner-oriented products.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The successful project will impact the perspectives of practitioners, scholars, and stakeholders within research universities, as well as develop a general understanding of different future pathways facing research universities and better prepare participants for whatever future may emerge from these uncertain times. It may also change policies and investments within universities and the agendas of public agencies addressing research policy.