Shashank Priya serves as the University of Minnesota’s vice president for research and innovation, overseeing a $1+ billion research enterprise across all campuses and facilities. He manages units responsible for administration of sponsored projects, research and regulatory compliance, technology commercialization, and corporate engagement, as well as 12 interdisciplinary academic centers and institutes.

At UMN, he has expanded and strengthened research infrastructure and services, in conjunction with growing the research enterprise through new initiatives such as International Institute on Biosensing, the Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation Center, the Sustainable GeoCommunities program, a national security research initiative, a systemwide data science initiative, an artist-in-residence program, and a research partnership with North Carolina A&T, the nation’s largest historically Black university.

Further, he has grown the technology commercialization and corporate engagement efforts through new programs such as Discovery to Impact and Innovation Minnesota.