The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H) encourages the development of collaborative relationships among UTHSC-H faculty and others around research and academic interests and pursuits related to the mission of the university.
To that end, the UTHSC-H will enable schools and the university itself to establish centers and institutes for specific purposes in pursuit of the organizational mission.
When such intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary relationships evolve into relatively stable and ongoing organizations, the participants often seek to organize themselves into a "center. The term "center" is used broadly at UTHSC-H; it may describe the activities of groups working on large research or service projects funded extramurally; other times, the term may be used to represent an unfunded, informal relationship among faculty with a common research interest.
The designation of an organization within a school or across schools as a center under the aegis of UTHSC-H should refer only to an organization devoted to a non-profit activity engaging UTHSC-H faculty and colleagues in scholarly work related to the mission of the university.
In all cases, a center is subject to all policies and procedures of UTHSC-H and may be subject to reporting and auditing requirements.
All faculty who affiliate with a UTHSC-H center must have an academic appointment in one of the UTHSC-H schools.
The university endorses the development of centers but requires that faculty who form such organizations within a school or within the university receive approval of the deans of the schools involved as well as the approval of university executive leadership. When an individual, department, school, or research group responds to an external funding agency's request for proposal for funding a center, any resulting center establishment must also be approved through the process described below in addition to the university's normal grant process. Upon notification of the award for a successful application for a funded center, the Principal Investigator must follow the procedures outlined below to obtain official approval for the new center.
Each center will have a primary affiliation with one of the UTHSC-H schools although faculty from all UTHSC-H schools are encouraged to affiliate with appropriate centers in other schools. The dean of the associated school is charged with institutional oversight of the center. In the case of centers that have widespread membership and missions, the president may charge an appropriate executive vice president with the responsibility for institutional oversight.
Each center will be required to submit an annual report to the dean(s) or executive vice president with oversight responsibility, who will append the center's report to their annual management report. The dean or executive vice president with oversight responsibility will determine the exact format of an individual center's annual report.
The term "institute" is used to describe a major, comprehensive organizational configuration focusing on a particular aspect of biomedical or behavioral research. At UTHSC-H this term is reserved for such major organizations as The Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases or The Institute for Health Policy. The term "institute" can be used only to describe such an organizational entity within the university and the use of the term "institute" must be approved by the president of the university.
In some cases, the term "center" may be used by school or by the university administrators to designate a particular service, administrative, or coordinating activity such as The Center for Animal Care and Laboratory Medicine or the Center for Nursing Research. The term "center" may also be used as part of the name of a major clinical service provider such as The Harris County Psychiatric Center. When such centers are created, the dean should inform the other deans and executive leadership of the university.
To establish a new center, the faculty involved should develop a proposal for the approval of affected deans.
The proposal should include
Operating procedures would include how the center is to be organized, leadership, membership, the processes of selection of a director and members, and so forth. The operating procedures describe administrative and financial processes that will be used to insure that UTHSC-H policies and procedures are followed in all aspects of the center's operations. The proposal should also describe the relationship of the center to formal organizations within the university or external to the university. If university space is to be used to conduct center activity, additional space requirements, if any, should be described. The proposal packet should include bylaws or other operating procedures if such are relevant.
Once the dean (or deans, where there will be multiple schools involved) endorses the proposal, the dean will forward the proposal to the executive vice president for research for review and approval. At their discretion, they may seek the advice of other Health Science Center groups (e.g., Interfaculty Council, Research Council, etc.) or leaders. Following their review, they will submit the proposal to the Executive Council for review and final recommendation to the president.
The president must approve the proposal before the term center can be used to describe any such activity under the aegis of UTHSC-H. Once approved, the center will be required to submit an annual report.
Centers will be approved for five-year terms, and will be automatically discontinued if not formally re-approved by the president for subsequent five-year terms. Requests for continuation of centers will be made by the dean or executive vice president with oversight responsibility and should include a summary progress report and any significant changes in proposed organization or operation of the center for the new five-year term. Requests will be submitted to the Executive Council for their review and final recommendation to the president.
As part of the institution's annual report process, center directors or others who have administrative responsibilities for centers must submit a report of center activities each fiscal year. As noted above, the exact format and content of the report will be determined by the dean or executive vice president with oversight responsibility, but reports are generally expected to include brief updates of center goals, progress toward goals, and summary plans for the coming fiscal year as well as other, relevant information such as associated publications and presentations, financial support for center activities, major grant proposals or awards, and so forth. Center reports should be incorporated into the annual management report of the appropriate dean or executive vice president.
Created 03/01; Updated 8/02