Technology-Inspired Health Innovation at Illinois
The future of Illinois health innovation and education
On June 20, 2022, Chancellor Robert Jones charged a Health Innovation Visioning Committee to propose the future role of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a pioneer in establishing a new technology-driven academic health research and education model that makes a significant, visible, and sustained impact on human health.
The committee worked to gather broad input from the campus community through various discussions, Town Hall meetings, and an online input form. This input was incorporated into a white paper report for the Chancellor in January of 2023.
THE VISION
A mission-driven research and education model
Human health exists across multiple dimensions, with grand challenges related to healthcare access and equity, nutrition, mental health, aging, global health, environmental health, and more. Illinois will address these challenges with a mission-driven research and education model.
A new Institute for Health Innovation
The physical embodiment of this new model for technology-inspired health innovation will be a new Institute for Health Innovation (IHI) – an evolution and visioning growth of the previously envisioned Translational Research Facility. The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) will be reimagined and integrated with the IHI.
IHI as the driver of the mission-based model
The IHI will serve as a centralized physical hub for driving missions that will reach broadly across campus. Faculty, students, staff, and partners will unite via their missions across five cores that carry the mission forward from idea to impact.
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Education: Work toward theme and mission-based degrees
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Research: Emphasize support for team-based research
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Community engagement: Identify and engage local partners
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Partnerships: Collaborate to drive real-world application
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Entrepreneurial translation: Move innovation to impact
Intellectual capital
Cluster faculty hiring will intentionally seek to address diversity and equity goals and include both tenure-track and specialized faculty positions at both junior and senior ranks, with home units broadly across campus. The initial cluster hiring plan will focus on expertise in technology-inspired health innovation, broadly defined and not limited to a particular college, with future cluster hiring searches aligning with the defined themes and missions.
Professional staffing
Professional mission managers will be recruited, hired, and supported to operationalize the missions. They will coordinate between and within the five cores integrated into each mission and ensure communications between multiple interdisciplinary units.
A bold step for Illinois
Our health, and the societal benefits of technological innovation, are both personal and evident. Foundational to this vision is our land grant mission to improve the human condition and all of humanity.
NEXT STEPS:
- Health Innovation Implementation Committee + 3 sub-committees
- Communications plan
- Integration with Boldly Illinois: Strategic Plan 2030
Read the Full White Paper Report:
A New Model for Technology-Inspired Health Innovation, Research, and Education
for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Questions? Please reach out at healthinstitute@illinois.edu.
Committee Members
Stephen Boppart, Chair
IHSI, GCOE (BioE, ECE), CI MED
Kraig Wagenecht, Project Manager
OVCRI ex officio
Rohit Bhargava
CCIL, GCOE (BioE)
Martin Burke
LAS (Chemistry)
Ryan Dilger
ACES (Animal Sciences)
Sharon Donovan
IGB, Personalized Nutrition Initiative, ACES (Nutritional Sciences)
Martha Gillette
Neuroscience Program, LAS (Cell & Developmental Biology)
Rosalba Hernandez
Social Work
Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler
Jump ARCHES, GCOE (MechSE)
Halil Kilicoglu
iSchool
Ruby Mendenhall
CI MED, LAS (Sociology)
Jeff Moore
LAS (Chemistry)
Eva Pomerantz
CSBS, LAS (Psychology)
Wendy Rogers
AHS (Kinesiology and Community Health)
Carin Vanderpool
Vet Med, LAS (Microbiology)
Amy Wagoner Johnson
CI MED, GCOE (MechSE)
Neal Cohen
LAS (Psychology) ex officio
Paulanne Jushkevich
OVCIA ex officio
Susan Koshy
LAS (English), OVCRI/IHSI Faculty Fellow ex officio
Melanie Loots
OVCRI ex officio
Gillian Snyder
IHSI ex officio
Bridget Melton
IHSI Communications Support
Kacey Nelson
IHSI Graphic Design Support
Leta Summers
IHSI Administrative Support