We are seeing some early signs of spring in South Bend. Nice, warm weather will certainly be welcome as we hopefully head down to the homestretch of the pandemic.
Rather than simply returning to normal, however, we are looking to learn and apply lessons from the experiences of the past 12 months. Toward this effort, Notre Dame’s Provost arranged a series of faculty discussions about the challenges and opportunities. The discussion series, called “Moment to See, Courage to Act,” is based on several documents regarding Catholic teaching, as well as Pope Francis’ observations about the profound impacts the pandemic has had on people around the world. The takeaway from these discussions, thus far, is the need for a strong and collective response to the major challenges facing humanity and the inequities and disparities that must be dealt with as part of that process. Notre Dame faculty are committed to addressing these issues as part of our scholarship; the conversations have been inspiring. Ultimately, these conversations will funnel into a strategic planning process, which will start next fall.
Despite the challenges of the past year, Notre Dame’s funded research programs continue to thrive. While stimulus-related grants have not been substantial to date and our metrics related to proposals did not change much compared to previous years, our grant awards metrics are up more than 30 percent year to date. The increased awards are broad-based. There have been increases in both large- and medium-sized grants from federal agencies, foundations, and companies - and there are increases for a cross-section of our Colleges, Schools, and Centers.
Let me close this note by thanking our ND researchers and their collaborators, partners, and sponsors, who have taken on the challenge of COVID-19 and continued their very important work. I invite you to join us in this fight, by reaching out to collaborate, explore our open faculty positions, or learn more about our other research initiatives at research.nd.edu.
Sincerely,
Bob Bernhard
Vice President for Research
