2023 Stakeholder Report
In 2023, we published our third annual stakeholder report to share out our successes and challenges. The Director's Note is excerpted below.
Dear Friends,
This is our third annual stakeholder report. It looks back on what we have accomplished and where we have fallen short in the previous fiscal year. It uses the same quantitative metrics that we have used in the previous two years so that we can track our performance and impact over time. It also provides qualitative evidence to help put the quantitative metrics in context.
I’m excited by our progress in raising William & Mary’s global profile and in producing new knowledge that shapes both academic and policy debates. We continue to provide unparalleled learning and professional opportunities to an increasing number of W&M students. Despite these accomplishments, we still have serious work to do to put GRI on a sustainable footing and to ensure that we provide opportunities to a broader range of students and faculty at W&M.
GRI is a distinctive organization within academia with a proven model capable of delivering rapid results to support the strategic goals outlined in W&M’s Vision 2026. GRI creates new knowledge to address real-world problems, while also training the next generation of globally-minded scholars and leaders. Our approach is distinctive because of the way we integrate three priorities:
- Engagement beyond the Ivory Tower: GRI researchers focus on real-world problems in collaboration with external partners. These problems require multidisciplinary solutions that leverage knowledge and tools from different domains.
- Inclusion of students in the research process: All GRI labs and initiatives include students in their work. All great universities create new knowledge, but GRI integrates the teaching mission of the university into the research process to ensure that our students receive distinctive learning and mentorship experiences that they can’t get in a classroom.
- External funding: GRI embraces a “seed to scale” model — making catalytic investments in student/faculty ideas that have the potential to attract external support in the form of grant funding, earned revenue, and/or philanthropic support.
In the past year, we have made significant progress on two of the three Key Goals that were outlined in last year’s Stakeholder Report. Details on our progress, and where we fell short, are documented below.
GRI has now been in existence for 20 years. Our origin story of student ideas catalyzing research collaboration is as relevant today as it was back in the Summer of 2003. I still believe that good ideas can come from anyone, and I see them coming from my students every day. This semester I taught a freshman seminar, and the creativity, work ethic, and can-do attitude that characterized GRI’s founding is still strong here in the Burg.
As always, thanks to you, our stakeholders and partners. Our ability to support student-faculty research at a world-class level depends upon your support. As educators, we have provided high-touch experiential learning opportunities to thousands of students, who have graduated to deliver profound impact across government, industry, and the non-profit sectors. Teaching through research is a calling card for GRI as we pioneer a research-infused model of the liberal arts. Teaching students is not a by-product of our work – it is an essential component of the GRI mission. Together we can make William & Mary a leader in applied research that makes a difference in the world.
Sincerely,
Mike Tierney
Director, Global Research Institute
William & Mary
