iSTAR (Improving Service to Advance Research)

Our mission is to create an outstanding climate of support for UW researchers. We prioritize and launch projects that minimize researchers and research administrators’ burden, help increase research capabilities across this university, and improve service to advance research (iSTAR). We work closely with our research partners on key projects that increase automation and standardization of processes. This dashboard reflects our work through the iSTAR initiative.

Aligned with our strategic goals:

• Add value to the overall research experience
• Achieve operational excellence
• Attract and retain top diverse staff
• Add value to the UW

The Office of Research and its units:

• Conduct regular surveys to obtain customer and employee feedback
• Hold quarterly OR leadership meetings
• Hold annual half-day leadership retreats
• Formulate strategic unit-specific goals for the upcoming year
• Measure critical unit functions and updates the organization’s metrics dashboard quarterly
• Have active teams made up of management and staff addressing unit organizational improvement efforts on an ongoing basis

Through this work, the Office of Research remains committed to our strategic goals, mission and vision to “create an outstanding climate of support for University of Washington researchers, broadly enabling stellar research advances.”