Strategic Plan 2020-2024

The updated vision of the ASRC is to improve human, societal, and environmental well-being in the decades to come through excellence in interdisciplinary scientific discovery and education executed by an internationally recognized center of excellence.

We seek to achieve our vision by pursuing the following mission over the next five years:

• To bring together leading scientists across five initiatives—Photonics, Nanoscience, Structural Biology, Neuroscience, and Environmental Sciences—to collaboratively address complex questions relevant to the most pressing challenges of their fields and society more broadly.
• To nurture a distinctive and inclusive research culture that is creative, collaborative, and convergent, with state-of-the-art facilities and an emphasis on training across STEM disciplines.
• To build on CUNY’s first-in-the-nation status as the engine of upward mobility for its large, diverse, and vibrant student body.
• To welcome scientists and students from all over the University, New York City and state, and the world to learn and contribute to our mission.

Our overall strategy to achieve distinction in the years to come is to identify scientific challenges of high societal importance that require our interdisciplinary skill set and to establish ourselves as a preeminent resource of expert knowledge in these areas. To do so, we will:

• Institute avenues to accelerate interdisciplinary research that will lead to new funded innovation centers/centers of excellence.
• Build a vibrant community of collaborators, within the ASRC and across CUNY through events and activities, core facilities, seed grants, and external multi-PI/large grant applications.
• Establish strategic partnerships with other academic, industry, and national organizations to support research, education, and workforce development.
• Develop new scientific instruments, interfaces, methods, etc. and pursue commercialization and technology transfer opportunities.
• Create advanced training curricula for undergraduates, master’s and doctoral students, and post-doctoral scholars with The Graduate Center, CUNY, and other partners.
• Promote the ASRC and its research through media outreach, op-eds, and other vehicles.
• Engage with the public to inspire and promote interdisciplinary science through public engagement and educational events and connect with stakeholders to influence future policy.
• Secure the center’s financial sustainability by increasing revenue from federal and nonfederal funding agencies; academic, industry, and nonprofit organizations; philanthropic organizations and donors; and core facility usage.