Idle centers in the schools of Business, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and the College of Arts and Sciences were closed and several that essentially have been absorbed by other centers officially were merged into those operations following approval by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees during its Sept. 19 meeting.
The closures largely are prompted by changes in leadership of the centers and/or lack of external funding for center activities. UAB officials had recommended the centers be closed and any physical, fiscal and human resources be transferred to appropriate units within the schools to support viable initiatives.
This institutional streamlining is part of our diligence in ongoing strategic planning to align resources with investments that best support efforts in education, research, patient care, community service and economic development, UAB President Ray Watts said.
“These are prudent decisions that enable us to focus on the programs and people that will best advance our mission,” he said.
The schools and centers within them that are closing:
- Business: Center for Management Study, OADI Technology Center and UAB Small Business Development Center
- College of Arts & Sciences: Center for Social Medicine and Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Center for the Study of Ethics and Values in the Sciences
- Dentistry: Oral Cancer Research Center and the Regional Maxillofacial Prosthetics Treatment and Training Center
- Medicine: Alabama Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Center for Contraceptive Research and Technology Transfer, Center for Heart Failure Research, Center for Neuroimmunology, Center for Wine and Cardiovascular Disease, Comprehensive Head Injury Center, Comprehensive Youth Violence Center, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, International Tuberculosis Center, UAB Acute Chest Pain Center, UAB Heart and Vascular Research Center and Vaccine Center.
- Nursing: Center for Nursing Research
It is worth noting that OADI Technology Center had been managed by the Entrepreneurial Center in a Collaborative Partnership with UAB, and on Jan.1, 2007, the name was officially changed from the Entrepreneurial Center to the Innovation Depot, which caused the OADI Technology Center to cease to exist as a separate entity.
Also, the Center for Nursing Research was created in 1988 for the purpose of supporting and promoting nursing research at a time when nursing research was in its early stages of development; today the integral school-based functions performed by the center occur within the Office for Research and Scholarship in the School of Nursing.
The School of Medicine centers that are being merged:
- Alabama Transplant Center into the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute,
- Cell Adhesion and Matrix Research Center into the Biomatrix Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Center,
- Deep South Resource Center for Minority Aging into the Comprehensive Center for Healthy Aging, and
- James A. Pittman General Clinical Research Center into the Center for Clinical and Translational Science,
- Sparks Center for Developmental and Learning Disorders into the Civitan International Research Center, and
- UAB Polycystic Kidney Disease Core Center into the UAB Hepato-Renal Fibrocystic Kidney Disease Core Center.
