The Exemplar of Excellence: Strategic Plan 2016-2021

Center for Animal Welfare Science

Animal Welfare - Our Science-Based Social Responsibility
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
February 2016

animal_footprints

Preamble

Purdue University has a long-standing reputation for excellence in the area of agricultural animal behavior and welfare research. The pioneering work of Dr. Jack Albright on dairy cow handling, management and welfare in the early 1980's laid the foundation for new, fruitful collaborations in poultry well-being led by Drs. Patricia Hester and William Muir in Animal Sciences, and with the USDA-ARS Livestock Behavior Research Unit (LBRU), which is currently housed in the Department of Animal Science. The LBRU's mission to develop scientific measures of animal welfare that facilitate objective evaluation of animal agricultural practices significantly expanded Purdue's capacity for graduate student training and research, particularly in poultry and swine welfare.

Purdue's history of excellence in farm animal welfare was further enhanced by the contributions of Dr. Paul Thompson, renowned philosopher of agricultural, food and community ethics, who joined the Animal Sciences faculty from 1997 - 2003, providing leadership as the Director of the Center for Food Animal Well-Being. That Center aimed to coordinate the relevant efforts of faculty within the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, a charge which was later assumed until 2009 by Dr. Ed Pajor, internationally recognized expert on agricultural animal welfare.

The scope of species coverage on animal welfare offered at Purdue expanded in 2004 with a new line of laboratory animal welfare science introduced in Animal Sciences by Dr. Joseph Garner. This work, along with innovative research conducted by the Center for the Human-Animal Bond, led by Dr. Alan Beck in the Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine, offered new potential for Purdue to distinguish itself from its peer institutions by combining collaborations in agricultural, companion, and laboratory animal welfare with expertise in the social sciences, covering ethics, psychology, policy and economics.

The collective capacity to build high impact, cross-disciplinary research, teaching, and engagement teams, along with the need for more cohesive effort and improved program visibility led to the impetus to create a new Center for Animal Welfare Science. Funded in 2012 by a provost's initiative to create new areas of excellence at Purdue, the Center for Animal Welfare Science (CAWS) was formally established in 2014. Supported jointly by the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, and led by Dr. Candace Croney, CAWS aims to address contentious social issues in animal welfare, inform policy development, and explore the broad effects of the human-animal bond, our obligations to animals, and their evolving roles in society.

Building on decades of institutional support that began with a vision by Dr. B.R. Baumgardt, former associate dean and director of agricultural research programs, Purdue University now hosts the most species-diverse and highest number of faculty in the United States dedicated to the study of animal welfare science. This history provides the contextual framework for the Center for Animal Welfare Science (CAWS) to chart its course for the next five years in terms of its mission and vision, goals with corresponding strategic actions, and accountability measures for its viability, development, and competitiveness. With wide participation of faculty and staff associated with the Center, it has now developed a strategic plan of action that is codified in this document.

Mission

Promote Science-Based Education

Promote animal welfare through science-based information and education to advance socially responsible decisions concerning animal care.

Key Characteristics:

Development and widespread sharing of science-based information on animal welfare issues.
Discovery, learning, and public engagement about understanding well-being of animals, their care, and their relationship to the ‘human-animal bond.
Effective approaches and solutions to address current and emerging animal welfare challenges in society.
Education that promotes socially responsible decision making concerning animal care and related ethics, management, and policy development.

Vision

Lead as an Exemplar of Excellence

Lead with interdisciplinary expertise as an exemplar of excellence for positioning human and animal interests as complementary and interdependent endeavors.

Key Characteristics:

Embodiment of effective and collaborative interdisciplinary research as the core strength of the Center’s excellence in animal welfare science and
Noteworthy exemplars of demonstrable standards for animal care in the context of a holistic set of societal, ecological, and environmental issues.
National expertise in positioning human and animal interests as mutually complementary and interdependent aspects of quality of life, and its societal value and purpose.
Leadership in facilitating productive and responsible social and political dialog on animal welfare.
Translation of science and ethics into standards for care and production of animals.

PLAN CONCEPT

Exemplar of Excellence

Goals

Goal 1: Discovery

Advance research and scholarship in animal welfare science featuring the identity and expertise of the Center.

Key Characteristics:

Research and scholarship of national and international reputation that advances the ‘brand identity’ of the Center through primary publications and white papers.
Freely searchable and widely available information on critical discovery activities emanating from the expertise offered by the Center.
Specially recognized focus on animal welfare science in a meaningful social context.
Focus areas of expertise based on superlative faculty credentials, specifically in:
- Welfare of selected species: food/fiber, companion,
- Understanding and assessment of consumer perceptions and related market impact.
- Role of genetics in animal
- Role of nutrition in animal
- Ethics of animal
- Effects of human-animal interactions/human-animal bonding relationships on animal welfare.

Key Strategies:

Pursue a growing and sustainable level of ‘seed funding’ for faculty and graduate/professional level students to explore innovative research in focus areas, and to present them through regional, national, and international avenues.
Cultivate collaborative research in focus areas by establishing a networking infrastructure that provides ubiquitous opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions among faculty in participating disciplines.
Aggressively garner extramural funds—at the ‘Center’ identity level as well as faculty/researcher level for sponsored research and promote the dissemination of the research results.
Incentivize faculty to publish their research and position papers through the Center for advancing the Center’s ‘brand identity.’
Enhance diversity of peer reviewed scientific publications addressing a broad spectrum of audiences.
Conduct seminars and symposia that demonstrate and communicate the value and utility of research in a meaningful way, so as to enhance pervasive understanding of the social relevance of animal welfare among targeted audiences.

Key Metrics:

*Note: I=Input, T=Throughput, O=Output [Strategies indexed in parenthesis]

[I/O] Amount of annual and cumulative ‘seed funding’ and expenditures at the ‘Center’ and researcher levels. [A]
[T/O] Amount of annual and cumulative extramural funds obtained along with research expenditures at the ‘Center’ and researcher levels. [A,C]
[T/O] Number of Center-based collaborative grant proposals submitted by participant members, the amounts funded and expended. [B,C]
[T/O] Number of ‘Center-branded’ publications (targeted at 12 per year covering at least three different types of publications). [B,D,E]
[O] Number of seminars and symposia held, and corresponding number of participants along with their feedback evaluations. [F]
[O] Scope of research networking per number of participating faculty, disciplines, and institutions (regional, national, and international). [A,B]

Goal 2: Learning

Enhance breadth and depth of capacity in learning and training opportunities in animal welfare science.

Key Characteristics:

Growing breadth and depth of teaching and learning endeavors—involving regional, national, and international contexts—with specialized scopes of training for graduate and professional students, and post-doctoral personnel.
Effective faculty development for expertise in focused areas of discovery that enhance advanced learning at graduate and professional levels.
Multiple opportunities for exposure to animal welfare science education available to undergraduate students.
Demonstrable capacity for Extension education, and advancing corporate understanding and knowledge of animal welfare science.

Key Strategies:

Enhance graduate/professional student learning, and undergraduate student exposure through symposia, seminars, conferences, peer-to-peer training, and on-line curricula.
Advance professional development of faculty and technical personnel through collaborative grants programs beyond the local levels.
Encourage graduate/professional students’ individual and collaborative research and scholarly endeavors for wide dissemination of outcomes for peer-review/learning through travel support for presentations at significant impact-bearing conference and symposia settings.
Advise academic units with a view to developing collaborative approaches to coalesce courses across academic areas so as to promote cohesiveness that avoids disparity and duplicity to serve student learning experiences with effectiveness and efficiency.
Increase and sustain faculty and student exchanges with other reputable institutions regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Pursue leadership development, team-building, and faculty/technical personnel collaboration in research foci through purposefully conducted facilitative sessions and structured retreats.
Establish a sustainably growing funding base for facilitating key learning strategies and priorities with enhanced scope and dimensions.

Key Metrics:

*Note: I=Input, T=Throughput, O=Output [Strategies indexed in parenthesis]

[T/O] Number of seminars, symposia, and conferences focused on learning experiences with corresponding number of student participants at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels along with their feedback for quality [A,B]
[T/O] Number of on-line curricula offerings, respective participants, their strategic locations and sponsors, participant feedback, and periodic program outcomes assessment. [A]
[T/O] Number and types of collaborative/interdisciplinary graduate programs, faculty and student exchanges, respective participants, and periodic program outcomes assessment. [C,D,E]
[T/O] Record and results of peer-to-peer training for graduate and professional students. [A,C]
[O] Number of student delivery of research and scholarly outcomes at regional, national, and international venues. [C]
[T/O] Number of facilitated leadership/team-building programs with corresponding participants and their program evaluations. [E]
[I/O] Annual level and trend of internal and external funding and expenditures dedicated to the key learning strategies. [A,B,C,D,E,F]

Goal 3: Engagement

Promote transfer of knowledge and its societal impact involving two-way partnerships with key constituencies.

Key Characteristics:

Effective transfer of the Center’s research-based knowledge to key constituencies involving two-way partnerships that address mutual needs and interests.
Leadership in facilitating productive/constructive dialogue with the public on animal
Active role in communicating how to interpret and evaluate the quality and impact of publicly available information on animal welfare.
Demonstrable expertise in informing animal welfare related policy-making at all

Key Strategies:

Develop and regularly update a dynamic, creative, and attractive website depicting the Center, its research foci and programs, participating members, and noteworthy outcomes—as the portal for the Center’s ‘brand identity,’ criticality, role, scope, utility and public value—to assist with publicity, and sponsored/private fund-raising.
Disseminate science-based information through journals, Extension papers, ‘white papers’ and works in progress that capture the depth and breadth of research with a view to advancing reliable public information on animal welfare science issues.
Develop strategic partnership relationships with media seeking their participation in enhancing the quality and reliability of public understanding of animal welfare issues by way of media and press reports.
Pursue and implement a ‘business school’ concept for disseminating critical animal welfare science information—e.g., webinars, one-day workshops, on-line modules for selected areas of information, podcasts, and face-to-face interactions—that is designed to inform key leaders in public policy development, and funding support.
Engage in ‘two-way’ partnerships with animal welfare science information consumers with a view to addressing mutual needs and interests, utilizing various forms of contact—e.g., ‘round-table’ discussions, travelling ‘town hall’ style dialogue by bringing together different constituencies offering multiple views—to help develop common and mutual understandings to coalesce informed public interest in animal welfare science, and related public responsibility.
Offer animal welfare science ‘sensitivity’-enhancing programs—including those with recreational dimensions—for various audiences (e.g., a ‘quiz bowl’ for youth groups).

Key Metrics:

*Note: I=Input, T=Throughput, O=Output [Strategies indexed in parenthesis]

[I] A website that captures the Center’s ‘brand-identity’ and draws significant world-wide attention as measured by ‘hits’ and volume of information access/traffic. [A]
[I/O] Number of ‘speakers’ bureau’ members, and the number of speaking engagements regionally, nationally, and internationally. [B]
[O] Number of Center-based reports, ‘white papers’ and popular press articles published, along with their usage measured by citations and/or referrals. [C]
[O] Number and type of reliable and high quality media and press [C]
[T/O] Number of ‘business school’ model programs, corresponding participants, and evaluation of program impact. [D]
[T/O] Number of ‘two-way’ partnerships generated and actively engaged with corresponding participation rates, toward demonstrable public policy [E]
[I/O] Number of programs and participation rates for enhancing social awareness and ‘sensitivity’ toward animal welfare science. [F]

IMPLEMENTATION

This strategic plan codifies the mission, vision, goals, and action strategies that will guide the Purdue Center for Animal Welfare Science (PCAWS) for the next five years. The key priority areas are diagrammatically summarized as expressed in the plan concept capturing the essence of this strategic plan.

The human, financial, and facilities resources that need to grow over time to fully implement this strategic plan will be addressed incrementally upon the foundational resources that have been collaboratively committed by the university and college administrative units.

Leadership in this important area of animal welfare science is of paramount importance concomitant with Purdue’s leadership role in the sciences associated with food/fiber, companion, and laboratory animals.

PCAWS now looks forward to implementing this plan by coalescing faculty expertise and university resources across university departments and colleges to present itself as an Exemplar of Excellence: Animal Welfare – Our Science-based Social Responsibility.