Strategic initiatives

Strategic Initiatives are large-scale, multidisciplinary responses that have transformative positive impact on society’s biggest challenges. They require multiple schools, colleges, and campuses to come together to create something larger than the sum of their parts. These are solutions that the University of Washington is equipped, and obligated, to address due to our mission to serve the greater good, our power as a convener and our interdisciplinary expertise.

For Strategic Initiatives to be realized, the UW must scale up existing and develop new operational infrastructure. A group of academic leaders have outlined a vision for this infrastructure, called “the impact ecosystem.” Strategic Initiatives and the impact ecosystem are highly interrelated rather than standalone ideas. Together, they are at the core of the UW’s vision for transformational impact. Strategic Initiatives, core components of our collective campaign priorities, encompass all levels of investment, engagement and communication.

Each of the UW’s Strategic Initiative includes the following key elements:

1. The effort is declared a Strategic Initiative by the President and Provost.
2. It addresses a grand societal challenge and leverages the UW’s unique assets and strengths to respond.
3. Faculty from at least three schools/colleges/campuses/units are deeply engaged in the visioning.
4. The deans of those schools/colleges have committed staffing and financial resources to the effort.
5. Advancement, External Affairs and/or the Office of Research has confirmed the potential exists for transformational investment.
6. Broad engagement has occurred within the UW community that raises awareness of, and secures feedback for, the vision and framework for the Strategic Initiative.
7. The framework for the Initiative includes design and implementation of a student credential.
8. The framework has an internally-focused aspect that ensures the UW is “walking the talk.”

A Strategic Initiative will no longer be considered a “Strategic Initiative” when:

• The on-the-ground realities that were the genesis for the Strategic Initiative have evolved to a point where it no longer makes strategic sense to maintain a centralized focus on the effort; OR,
• Transformational investment has been secured; OR,
• Updated analysis reveals that there is no clear pathway to transformational investment; AND,
• There is no longer a need for central, Strategic Initiatives Office incubation support; AND,
• Activities of the Initiative have been incorporated into an existing unit(s) or sunset.

Emerging Initiatives share some common characteristics with Strategic Initiatives:

• They address a grand societal challenge.
• The work is interdisciplinary, involving faculty from at least three schools/colleges/campuses/units, with the potential to engage more broadly as it evolves in its design.
• It may have the potential for transformational investment.

What distinguishes Emerging Initiatives from Strategic Initiatives is:

• The emerging vision is not yet connected to the UW’s unique assets and strengths.
• The effort is rising from and is led by faculty/academic leadership but does not yet have the institutional support of the president and provost nor financial investment from participating deans.
• The potential for transformational investment has not yet been validated.
• The effort has not yet identified a pathway to a student credential.
• The emerging vision does not yet have an internally-focused, “walk the talk” component.

Strategic Initiatives require transformational investment to be realized. These are transformational solutions – not incremental growth of existing work and expertise, but bold visions to do something new or differently. Transformational investments are multifaceted. They include transformative gifts and private grants, federal, state, and local funding, other public/private partnerships and more.

Members of the Strategy & Campaigns, Principal Giving, Corporate & Foundation Relations, External Affairs, Office of Research and other teams offer strategic guidance and support for multidisciplinary, transformative gifts and investments of $50M+ that cross traditional academic boundaries.

Each transformational gift will have its own unique structure. Transformational investments are inherently interdisciplinary, rather than single unit, and therefore can be accepted and spent in multiple ways. The three most common are:

• Allocated to specific units per gift or grant agreement
• Received centrally, then distributed to various units
• Received and spent centrally in ways that benefit many parts of the UW

All Strategic Initiatives will generally be governed and operated via the following structure:

• President and provost declare and then oversee the Strategic Initiative
• President and provost assign an academic/faculty lead
• President and provost assign a staff operational lead
• An internal steering committee is established
• External advisors or advisory board are recruited

Consultation regarding resourcing will occur with the President and/or Provost, as well as the Strategic Initiatives Office, prior to declaration of the effort as a Strategic / Emerging Initiative or allocation of resources. This consultation will help to determine and allocate start-up staffing and financial resourcing, including identification of the staffing and financial resources that will be contributed by participating deans in the case of Strategic Initiatives. Allocation determinations for central staffing and financial resourcing will be completed in conjunction with the annual budget planning process whenever it is possible and realistic to do so. There is no requirement for the leads of an initiative to accept support from the SIO.