University Cluster Hires Program

The University Cluster Hires program is designed to attract new faculty members to campus across multiple disciplines, oriented around a common research objective. University Cluster Hires are all about collaboration — in which the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. There are five defining objectives:

1. Address emerging and escalating global grand challenges and societal issues where KU has special capabilities.
2. Build scholarly communities that challenge, engage, and inspire individuals from many disciplines around a common theme.
3. Enhance KU’s national and international visibility and impact.
4. Engage and motivate funding agencies, foundations, state government, community, alumni, and friends to provide much-needed resources.
5. Provide our students with unique experiences that will position them as highly recruited and valued drivers and innovators of social and technological change.

University Cluster Hires are an exciting opportunity to add new faculty expertise around the strategic initiative themes, to build bridges between departments and schools, to strengthen existing research areas or move into new developing areas, and to attract significant external research funding.

University Cluster Hires are funded jointly by the schools/College as well as by the Provost's Office. Those faculty slots that are centrally funded come from the state-supported growth of engineering by 30 new faculty positions, the 12 Foundation Professor positions funded by the state, and 22 new faculty positions funded by savings generated through Changing for Excellence.  

• Background Materials
  • Provost eNews providing background on University Cluster Hires
  • University Cluster Hires sample proposal template
• Authorized University Cluster Hires

  To date, three University Cluster Hires of varying sizes have been authorized:

  • A cluster on the topic of water quality and resources consisting of eight new faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the School of Law;
  • A cluster on the development of therapeutic proteins and vaccines involving three new faculty members in the School of Pharmacy and the School of Engineering; and
  • An Enhancing Energy cluster of six new faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering.