Vanderbilt to merge research and enterprise tech under new vice chancellor

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Davidson County Herald), Vanderbilt University will consolidate its technology operations into a single organization to support the growing computational needs of its research enterprise. The new structure will place Research IT, which includes the Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education, on equal footing with Vanderbilt University Information Technology and Data and Strategic Analytics.

The university plans to oversee this unified group through a new vice chancellor for technology and business transformation. A national search for that role will begin soon, and the new organizational structure will take effect upon the hiring of the vice chancellor. Until that appointment is made, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation will retain administrative oversight of Research IT while collaborating with leadership from the other two divisions to set transition milestones.

Vanderbilt states the move is intended to accelerate digital innovation and provide enterprise-scale infrastructure. The university aims to improve user experience and compliance frameworks while strengthening cybersecurity and research security. Upon launch, Research IT will maintain a formal dotted-line reporting relationship with Vice Provost for Research and Innovation Susan Margulies to ensure faculty research priorities and grant requirements remain central to institutional technology planning.

Existing technology services for students, staff, postdocs and researchers will continue without interruption during the transition. There will be no immediate changes to ACCRE cluster access, ongoing compute jobs, high-capacity storage allocations or grant support workflows. Faculty and laboratory personnel will continue working directly with their established Research IT and ACCRE engineers, while standard help desk ticketing and classroom technology services under VUIT will remain unchanged.

To guide the long-term evolution of campus computational infrastructure, the university has engaged TiER1 Performance to conduct a 12-week visioning study. The firm will benchmark Vanderbilt against peer R1 research institutions and leading industry organizations. It will also gather direct input from faculty, researchers, center directors and technical staff across all schools and colleges to create an actionable roadmap for funding and delivering advanced computing, data storage and AI tools.

Campus listening sessions will begin this month to allow faculty, staff and researchers to ask questions and offer feedback on the strategic direction of the technology ecosystem. Detailed information and frequently asked questions are available on the Research IT Realignment FAQ. Direct questions regarding the transition may be sent to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation at ovpri@vanderbilt.edu.