Investment Announcement
State of the University
At his 2018 State of the University Address, President Choi announced up to $260M in strategic investments to support financially viable, mission-centric projects that will offer a positive return on investment and help the University move toward excellence. Investments in support of the Missouri compacts will be made over a five-year period and are meant to support bold, innovative and far-reaching proposals from the four universities. Strategic investment funds from the UM System will be made available on July 1, 2019.
View President Choi's full address with investment announcements below, or continue reading for a summary of information.
Trouble viewing the video? Click here to view on YouTube.
Click on a header to expand a selection and uncover additional information about that investment.
Promise & Opportunity Scholarship Program
Funding amount: $75 million investment in need-based scholarships for Missouri resident undergraduate students. UM System investments must be matched by each university along with philanthropic support.
Goal: Increase student success (retention rates, graduation rates, debt at graduation, job placement and graduate school attendance, etc.), opportunity and access by leveraging strategic investment funds and philanthropy.
- Focus on Missouri resident undergraduate students.
- Unmet need should be addressed for Pell and Near Pell eligible students.
- Need eligibility is defined as an expected family contribution of $12,000 or less (about $75,000 in family income).
- Additional advising and mentoring to ensure success for Pell and Near Pell students is encouraged.
Funding process: Each university within the system has or will establish a fund allowing donors to give to students in a particular college who meet the scholarship requirements. There is no minimum amount required to participate in giving to these college funds. Donors wishing to give a named gift or special preference gift will need to meet the program minimum to participate:
- Cash gifts: $100,000, MU; $50,000, UMKC; $25,000, S&T or UMSL
- Endowments: $500,000, MU; $250,000, UMKC, S&T or UMSL
- For named gifts, the receiving university and the UM System central administrative office must sign off on agreement terms in order to commit the dollar match.
University proposals submitted to UM System President and VP for Finance/CFO to review and approve.
Next Generation Merit Scholarship Program
Funding amount: $25 million investment in scholarships for Missouri resident undergraduate students. UM System investments must be matched by each university along with philanthropic support.
Goal: Target excellence and increase student success (retention rates, graduation rates, debt at graduation, job placement and graduate school attendance, etc.), opportunity and access by leveraging strategic investment funds and philanthropy.
- Each university has a target score for scholarship:
- MU: Student is eligible for admission to honors college
- UMKC: ACT score of 29 or higher
- S&T: ACT score of 30 or higher
- UMSL ACT score of 28 or higher
Funding Process: Each university within the system has or will establish a fund allowing donors to give to students in a particular college who meet the scholarship requirements. There is no minimum amount required to participate in giving to these college funds. Donors wishing to give a named gift or special preference gift will need to meet the program minimum to participate:
- Cash gifts: $100,000, MU; $50,000, UMKC; $25,000, S&T or UMSL
- Endowments: $500,000, MU; $250,000, UMKC, S&T or UMSL
- For named gifts, the receiving university and the UM System central administrative office must sign off on agreement terms in order to commit the dollar match.
University proposals submitted to UM System President and VP for Finance/CFO to review and approve.
Research & Creative Works Program
Funding amount: $50 million over five years.
Goal: Research and creative works funds will be used to support novel approaches to address grand challenge problems.
Funding process: All tenured/tenure track faculty and full-time, ranked non-tenure track research faculty are eligible to apply.
- Tier 1: Instrumentation and Infrastructure proposals that involve total requested funds up to $1,000,000.
- Tier 2: Proposals for multi-investigator projects that will involve total requested funds up to $300,000 over a two-year period. For this tier, there will an emphasis in supporting grand challenge projects that lead to center-level activities.
Access additional information on selected projects and apply for funding through the Research and Creative Works Strategic Investment Program webpage.
NextGen Precision Health
Funding amount: $50 million in the next five years.
Goal: Funds will be used for the NextGen Institute, instrumentation, external partnerships to support extramural research grants and to leverage philanthropic support. The three emphasis area working groups (vascular, neural and cancer) will develop strategic plans for each area, identify instrumentation needs and develop multi-institution proposals for extramural funding and external partnerships.
Funding process: Decisions for funding will be made on an on-going basis.
Digital Learning Program
Funding amount: $20 million for the next 5 years.
Goal: Plans include hiring a chief digital learning officer for UM System; hiring a consulting firm to advise UM System on strategic development of online programs to serve adult learners in Missouri and to increase revenue; and the submission of a proposal to MDHE for the MO Excel program to develop high-quality online programs in areas of high workforce needs for adult learners in Missouri.
Funding process: Decisions for funding will be made on an on-going basis.
For additional information, including regular updates from the eLearning Task Force, visit the corresponding eLearning webpage.
Missouri Distinguished Professorship Program
Funding amount: $12 million in the next five years.
Goal: Each university is encouraged to advertise for the Missouri Distinguished Professorships to recruit National Academy Members.
Funding process: Decisions for funding will be made on an on-going basis.
Outreach & Engagement Program
Funding amount: $10 million in the next five years.
Goal: To increase capacity for delivering outreach activities of all four universities through the engagement officers as well as increasing the access to healthcare throughout Missouri using the assets and people of the four universities and MU Healthcare.
Funding process: Decisions for funding will be made in June 2019.
Visit the UM System Office of Engagement and Outreach for additional details and updates.
Inclusive Excellence Program
Funding amount: $8.5 million in the next five years.
Goal: the new program will focus on recruitment and retention of faculty, students and staff that bring diverse experiences, background and perspectives to the four universities.
Funding process: $3.4 million was provided for projects in FY19 and FY20. Description of the program and plans for implementation will be provided in November 2020.
Visit the UM System Office of Equity and Title IX for additional information.
Faculty & Staff Success Program
Funding amount: $7.5 million in the next five years.
Goal: Directly impact the success of faculty and staff through leadership development, effective recruitment and onboarding and becoming an employer of choice.
Funding process: Decisions for funding will be made on an on-going basis.
Key areas: Learning and Leadership Development, Recruitment and Retention, Learning Management System, Offboarding and Exit Processes.
Additional information will be made available as programs and projects launch; review the Faculty and Staff Success: Funding Request presentation (PDF, 368KB) for more.
MO SourceLink Program
Funding amount: $1.25 million in the next five years.
Goal: Connect small business owners with a network of nonprofit resource organization that provide business-building services through UM System Economic Development efforts.
Funding process: Description of the program and plans for implementation will be provided in November 2019.
Visit the MO SourceLink website for additional detail.
American Public Square Program
Funding amount: $250,000 in the next five years.
Goal: Development a program to organize programs that feature expert panelists and audience members with opposing views talking to each other, civilly, about controversial topics. Though these discussions may not always change minds, everyone walks away with a better understanding of the other side, a key step toward respect, compromise and resolution.
Funding process: Description of the program and plans for implementation will be provided by November 2019.
EQ Student Accelerator
Funding amount: $250,000 in FY19.
Goal: See more successful student entrepreneurs launching businesses in Missouri.
Funding process: Description of the program and plans for implementation will be provided by November 2019.
Visit the EQ Student Accelerator site for additional information.
UM System Missouri Buy Program
Funding amount:
Goal: Provide preference for Missouri businesses in UM System purchasing.
Funding process: Description of the program and plans for implementation will be provided by November 2019.
Read the December 2018 press release for more information about the program.
UM System Expense Reduction Program
Funding amount:
Goal: to reduce non-personnel expenditures by 10% in FY19 and an additional 10% in FY20
Funding process: Description of the program and plans for implementation will be provided by November 2019.
Reviewed 2024-08-09