ORED to Provide Holistic Support Across Campus

Recently named Vice President of Research & Economic Development Samuel Bentley, Sr. met with LSU faculty members and administrators to discuss the Office of Research & Economic Development’s (ORED) mission to facilitate productive research on campus. In his presentation, he outlined a five-year plan to build sponsored research and economic development in all aspects of the scholarly enterprise.

“We want to provide holistic support across campus–a diverse array of programs from existing focal areas with strong funding to emerging areas that have intellectual strength that are ready for additional sponsored support,” Bentley said. “We need to bring resources to the areas that can move the needle.”

Holistic support is a strategy aimed at building successes in all campus units, small and large, and reaching targets with a mix of research projects to broaden the scope of the scholarly enterprise.  

“We want to provide mentoring and staff support for proposal development,” said Bentley. “We want to increase success rates for small to midsize proposals. Lastly, we will work hard on ‘center’ type proposals.”

Bentley also explained the opportunities that result from a holistic approach.

“LSU has a fantastic array of resources in terms of wonderful faculty, excellent facilities, and strong technical and human capabilities, but they’re not well connected,” mentioned Bentley. “When we connect all of these areas through conduits of ideas including funding and economic development, we become much more connected and rich in resources.”

Funding sources are also crucial to the growth of research and economic development and have a direct impact on resources to other components of LSU.

“The goal over the next five years is to grow the research awards and expenditures on the LSU campus,” Bentley said. “We need more funding to put into faculty pockets, our campus programs, and the state of Louisiana."

Samuel Bentley was named vice president in June after serving as interim vice president for research and economic development since February. Bentley has also served as associate dean for research and administration in the LSU College of Science, director of LSU’s Coastal Studies Institute, and as the Erich and Lea Sternberg Professor in the LSU Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College. Bentley is a professor and the Billy and Ann Harrison Chair in Sedimentary Geology in the LSU Department of Geology & Geophysics.
 
Faculty members can contact ORED for proposal development, internal funding grants, business development, intellectual property, compliance and research infrastructure.