ANN ABOR, Mich.?The University of Michigan will hire 25 new junior faculty in the initial phase of a five-year, $30 million initiative to add 100 junior tenure-track positions in areas that advance interdisciplinary teaching and research.

President Mary Sue Coleman and Provost Teresa Sullivan have approved funding for faculty positions in six cross-disciplinary areas, chosen from among 39 proposals submitted by academic units across campus.

?The enthusiastic response of our schools and colleges tells me there is a strong desire for broader and deeper collaborative work across our campus,? Coleman said. ?This new intersecting of people and ideas builds on the University?s teaching and research strengths.?

The proposals approved for hiring in 2008 are in the following interdisciplinary areas:

–Data Mining, Learning and Discovery with Massive Datasets, submitted by the colleges of Engineering and Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), five faculty positions.

–Energy Storage, submitted by the colleges of Engineering and LSA, and the School of Natural Resources and Environment, five faculty positions.

–Global Change: Cryosphere and Sea-Level Impacts, submitted by the colleges of Engineering and LSA, three faculty positions.

–Global HIV/AIDS, LSA, Medical School and School of Nursing, five faculty positions.

–Microbial Ecology: Relationships to Human and Environmental Health, LSA, Medical School, School of Public Health, four faculty positions.

–Social Science and Energy, LSA, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, three faculty positions.

?Faculty from across the campus presented exciting ideas for interdisciplinary research in the proposals they submitted for funding,? Sullivan said. ?The strength and diversity of these proposals augurs well for the proposals we can expect over the next four years. Those selected for funding in this first round offer opportunities for innovative research across disciplines that will enhance educational programs for our students.?

Coleman announced the initiative to create 100 new tenure-track faculty positions in November 2007, with the goal of recruiting scholars whose work crosses boundaries and opens new pathways, or for cluster hires that bring scholars from different fields together to explore significant questions or address complex problems. The program is intended to enhance the University?s ability to engage emerging research opportunities and to increase tenure-track faculty involvement in the University?s teaching mission.

The Interdisciplinary Junior Faculty Initiative Faculty Review Committee was comprised of faculty members from across the campus and chaired by Pamela Raymond, the Steven S. Easter Collegiate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in LSA. The committee followed a review process similar to that used by granting agencies of the federal government.

Reviewers evaluated proposals on such items as rationale, intellectual strength, contributions to undergraduate and graduate education, mentoring plan, promotion and tenure plan, and contribution to advancing institutional priorities.

Guidelines for the next round of the competition will be released in the fall of 2008. The program will continue through 2012.

Interdisciplinary Junior Faculty Initiative