Vice President for Research

The vice president for research (VPR) is responsible for stewarding MIT’s research enterprise and fostering an outstanding research environment for MIT’s faculty, postdocs, research staff, and graduate students. The VPR sets a strategic vision; enables major research initiatives that cut across the Institute, including through interdisciplinary labs/centers/institutes; and maintains a research administration, policy, and compliance infrastructure whose excellence matches that of MIT’s research itself.

The VPR reports to the president. The vice provost and associate vice president for research administration, the vice provost and associate vice president for research computing and data, and the directors of labs, centers, and institutes report to the VPR.

Please note: In September 2023, the Institute launched a search for a newly titled position, senior vice provost for research (SVPR) responsible for the vice president for research’s portfolio, reporting to the provost with a dotted line reporting relationship to the president. In January 2024, the Institute announced the reinstatement of the vice president for research title and the direct reporting line to the president. The title and reporting line in this position description have been updated accordingly. The role’s essential functions described below remain unchanged since the September 2023 announcement.

Essential functions

Research administration, operations, and engagement

• Oversee the Office of the Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Research Administration, which includes Research Administration Services (RAS) and the Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Transfer (OSATT) (OSATT Core, the Technology Licensing Office, and Corporate Relations).
• Direct additional offices and functions that support Institute research such as the International Scholars Office (ISchO), Postdoctoral Services, Research Administration Systems and Support, Research Development, and Cost Analysis.
• Oversee the Office of the Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Research Computing and Data (ORCD), which provides computational resources to the MIT research enterprise.
• Strengthen existing partnerships, and implement new engagements, with government, industry, universities, foundations, nationally and internationally.
• Act as the Institute’s representative at national labs and on national committees and communicate the state of the Institute’s research enterprise.

Interdisciplinary labs, centers, and institutes

• Provide oversight of interdisciplinary research laboratories, centers, and institutes, including the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the MIT Energy and Environmental Solutions Initiatives, the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the Research Laboratory of Electronics, the Center for Environmental Health Sciences, MIT.nano, Lincoln Laboratory, and Haystack Observatory. Lab, center, and institute directors will report to the VPR.
• Direct the allocation of institutional resources to support and catalyze interdisciplinary research and to support the enhancement of research facilities, instrumentation, and infrastructure.

Proposals and awards

• Connect faculty to funding opportunities and sponsors.
• Provide and oversee tools and resources to increase the MIT research community’s competitiveness.
• Uphold policies, procedures, and fiscal responsibilities of pre- and post- award activities.

Research conduct

• Oversee Research Compliance including research integrity, the Division of Comparative Medicine, the Committee on Animal Care (CAC), the Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and the Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES).
• Serve as a resource to faculty by assisting with research compliance requirements.
• Oversee research data security through Research Compliance.