Contact: Roger Martin, Research and Public Service, (785) 864-7239.
LAWRENCE - A University of Kansas center that arose to help Kansas with economic development has changed its name, broadened its mission and wants to involve more faculty.
The KU Institute for Public Policy and Business Research was renamed the Policy Research Institute on July 1, said Steven Maynard-Moody, its interim director and KU professor of public administration. It is also developing a new identity.
KU officials hope that as the center develops that identity, the result will be an increased flow to campus of federal research dollars.
Established in 1985, IPPBR has focused on state and local economic development, economic modeling and economic-impact analysis. It has also done economic forecasting and provided service to governmental agencies and entities. IPPBR was formed just two years after KU had established the KU Center for Bioanalytical Research - the first of several KU "centers of excellence." The idea was that these centers would generate income and jobs for Kansans.
At the new research institute, IPPBR projects will continue through the Center for Economic and Business analysis, Maynard-Moody said.
"We're not doing away with anything that IPPBR was doing," said Jim Roberts, associate vice chancellor for research and public service at the KU Center for Research. "We're doing more."
A new Center for Metropolitan Studies will underscore KU's commitment, as articulated by Chancellor Robert Hemenway, to providing research and service to the greater Kansas City area. George Frederickson, distinguished professor of public administration, will lead that effort, Maynard-Moody said.
Meanwhile, Deborah Gerner and Philip Schrodt, professors of political science, will head a Center for International Political Analysis within PRI.
PRI is also discussing an affiliation with the KU School of Business Center for International Business Education and Research, Maynard-Moody said. In addition, PRI is fostering the formation of interdisciplinary workgroups on environmental and health policy and the study of economic transition from centralized to free market economies in Eastern Europe.
Faculty and affiliates of the schools of engineering and law, as well as the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center, might also be involved, Maynard-Moody said, adding that PRI is also "looking for a wider array of social science researchers, both within and outside the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences."
Another goal of the reorganization is generating more research funding. KU aspires to be among the top 50 public research universities, in terms of federal research expenditures, on a sustained basis, Roberts said.
In 1998, the last year for which data is available, KU was 60th.
Roberts said, "Frankly, the PRI gives us an opportunity for more collaborations. But more than just enhancing our ranking and prestige, funding is a means to an end - it helps faculty conduct research and work with students and it fuels the local economy."