Broad interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are essential for addressing the most pressing problems we face. Sometimes such collaborations can occur spontaneously within a single organizational unit but, more often, interactions have to be cultivated intentionally to enable them to grow and succeed.
The Office of Research and Technology Management facilitates such relationships and fosters their development by conferring the status of “University Research Center” or “University Interdisciplinary Institute” to organizational units that bring together faculty, students and staff to address research topics that cannot be confined to a single School or College.
These organizational units are distinguished from Centers and Institutes that reside in one School or College and do not have the “University” designation.
Accordingly, they develop research programs that cross traditional academic units, making it possible to acquire extramural resources for which they might not otherwise qualify. They also may have education and outreach functions.
Learn more about CWRU’s University Research Centers and Interdisciplinary Institutes:
- Advanced Center for Humans in Extreme and Variable Environments (ACHIEVE)
- Institute for Functional Restoration (IFR): restorefunction.org
- Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems (ISSaCS): engineering.case.edu/research/institutes/smart-secure-connected-systems