Jaclyn Figg

Staff Writer

Research can always benefit by input from varying fields of study. To integrate this concept, ISU faculty created the Integrated Research Center.

Located in the basement of the Business Administration building, the College of Arts and Letters opened the center in December.

“We ended up with the name integrated because we truly want it to be bigger than just political science and history or art and theater departments working together,” said Donna Lybecker, chair of the political science department and author of the concept paper used to develop the center. “We want it to integrate across disciplines.”

The idea for the center originated from the Managing Idaho’s Landscapes for Ecosystem Services (MILES) project, funded by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and National Science Foundation (NSF).

The NSF and EPSCoR fund states like Idaho and others who are up and coming in research.

MILES is a $20 million grant for ISU, Boise State and University of Idaho to work with environmental issues over a five-year period.

ISU social scientists collaborate with biophysical and geo-scientists in the College of Science and Engineering on environmental issues in Pocatello.  In this region, ISU members work with the MILES grant to focus primarily on the Portneuf River.

“There was interest in making the MILES project ongoing, sustainable,” said Mark McBeth, associate dean of social and behavioral sciences. “After the grant is done, the NSF wants to make sure that research activities continue.”   

One way to do this was to develop a lab for the social sciences to conduct survey research and work with stakeholders in the local community and surrounding regions.

Kandi Turley-Ames, dean of the College of Arts and Letters and a psychologist, recently focused her studies on integrated research.

Instead of being just a social science lab, her idea was to create an integrated research center not only involving the social sciences, but also the humanities and the fine arts said McBeth.

“Integrated Research means breaking down all the boundaries between different disciplines and different subject areas,” McBeth said.

Though Lybecker wrote the concept paper for the research center, there were many brains spearheading the efforts.

Lybecker, McBeth and James Stoutenborough, postdoctoral research associate, sat down together and talked about what they thought was important for the center.

Their discussion involved how the center could perform research efficiently, how to bring not only faculty from diverse departments together, but also how to get students involved in the process and ultimately bring the public and community into it as well.

“We’re trying to build research strength at the university,” Lybecker said.

Money from the MILES grant, the College of Arts and Letters and private donors contributed to the creation of the center.

Former Vice President of Research, Howard Grimes, helped access money for the college to acquire equipment for the center.

A 3D printer, a scanner plotter, an eye tracker, an electroencephalogram or EEG cap and various software and computers make up a majority of the available equipment.

“The idea is that we needed a space for collaboration, a space where faculty can get together,” McBeth said.

ISU is trying to hire someone to replace the previous staff member who oversaw the center and once accomplished, some small classes will be possible. Later, other classes can take advantage by having assignments that require use of some of the equipment.

“[Turley-Ames’] idea is we have to break down these silos in academia,” McBeth said. We all get kind of trapped in our little narrow worlds. The purpose was to break down the silos, and have a space where people could have both the technology to allow collaboration, and a space where faculty can get together and collaborate.”

As far as costs go, students and faculty can use the computers and software free of charge, but for map printing, 3D printing and such things, there will be a minimal cost that will go towards the materials.

According to Lybecker everyone is going to be able to utilize the integrated research center.

“It’s going to be bigger than just the college,” she said, “though the college is the main first push.”