What Comes Next? Initial Insights from Community Review of ULAM’s Strategic Plan

Earlier this year, members of the U-M animal care and use community were invited to provide feedback on the Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ULAM)’s multi-year strategic plan.

Feedback garnered from the survey will be used to help shape the future direction of ULAM’s strategic goals and operations in the areas of:

• Animal husbandry and housing
• Veterinary care
• Specialized research support services
• Animal ordering and procurement
• Training and education

The survey was open to collect responses for approximately one month. In that time, over 130 members of the research community, including PIs; Lab Managers; Lab Personnel/Technicians; Administrators; and Postdoctoral Researchers, shared their thoughts on four Strategic Plan Goal Areas:

• Enhance Services
• Operational Efficiency & Fiscal Responsibility
• Community Engagement & Communication
• ULAM Mission & Brand

Respondents were able to select which areas they wanted to provide feedback on and were then asked to rank a series of proposed tactics and specific action items based on their level of enthusiasm and support for pursuing each action. Individuals were also able to propose their own action items or additional tactics for ULAM to pursue.

Below is a summary of the most-reviewed Goal Areas based on the percentage of respondents who elected to provide feedback on that specific topic:

Next Steps

The ULAM Leadership Team is currently reviewing all feedback and comparing different high-level themes with current strategies and tactics to identify where there may be overlap and to ensure that the appropriate action items have been prioritized to best support the U-M research community moving forward.

The team is also analyzing the numerous write-in comments and suggestions to look for additional themes that may not be represented in the current Strategic Plan. In the continued pursuit of greater transparency, updates on important next steps and additional planning efforts will be shared with the research community as they become available.

Let Us Know!

As always, your feedback and collaboration are welcome and appreciated. The ULAM Strategic Plan can be viewed at animalcare.umich.edu/ulam-res-strategic-plan  using valid Level-1 login credentials.

Questions or concerns about ULAM’s Strategic Plan may be directed to acu-communications@umich.edu or the ULAM Business Office at ulam-questions@umich.edu.

 Links marked with a lock icon can only be accessed using valid Level-1 U-M login credentials.