Calit2 Research: The Path Forward

Within the last two years, Calit2 implemented a cross-campus participatory process to develop a strategic plan referred to as the Path Forward. The first phase of this work was completed in March 2010 with an initial release of the plan focused on the Institute’s Application Thrusts (Culture, Energy, Environment, and Health). The Institute’s second phase of planning, focusing on Enabling Technologies (Wireless, Photonics, Cyberinfrastructure, and Nanotechnology/MEMS), is well underway with a working draft of the second release of the document being distributed for community review in late Fall 2011. A final cross-Institute All-Hands meeting will be held in January 2012 to complete the Path Forward process and update the Calit2 community on the ten-year Academic Review. The plan draws on faculty interests, campus thrusts, nation and industry interests, and global technology and funding trends. Finally, it provides the technology road map over the next decade for our four socially relevant Application Thrusts.

Calit2 will continue to invest in the development of cutting-edge technologies that can enable advances across multiple sectors and industries. Building on past successes, Calit2 will focus these enabling technologies on wireless communications, photonics, cyberspace, as well as nanotechnology and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). The institute will continue to develop ‘living laboratories’ and research spaces to house multidisciplinary collaborations – ensuring that the breadth and crosscutting nature of Calit2’s research teams will result in new technologies, systems and expertise that are consistent with the institute’s successes to date.