Faculty in research and what you need to know, according to this Houston expert

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To be better leaders, the administration should engage its primary audience: the faculty. Graphic by Miguel Tovar/University of Houston

The world of academic research is tough. As institutional research offices juggle regulatory and financial challenges within a continually strained system, they still have to lead their respective enterprises and serve their research communities.

“Service before leadership,” said Amr Elnashai, vice president/vice chancellor for research and technology transfer at the University of Houston. “We cannot miss this very important fact – we have to serve the needs of our research communities, first, before they will trust us to lead.”

How can we better serve faculty while tackling the many challenges faced by research divisions?

Sara Bible, associate vice provost for research at Stanford University, says the best way is to continually engage faculty in the business of research.

Rule making within research

Let’s be honest – faculty don’t particularly enjoy the administrative overburden dished out by university research offices. Nor should they.

But involving faculty in the process is the quickest way to earn their cooperation.

“You will have good results if you put in the time,” said Bible. “It’s really important to be flexible with faculty and staff on campus.”

One way Bible has successfully engaged her research community is in policy development. Her office at Stanford implemented a research policy working group that spends months testing policy language and effectiveness with university faculty and staff before it is launched.

“We’ve had great results,” she said. “People want to engage and be part of the process, not just be expected to follow a rigid set of rules.”

The pre-deadline deadline

Another way to partner with faculty is to work with them to improve the proposal review cycle, for everyone knows the risks of pushing the magic button mere minutes before the deadline.

Melinda Cotton, assistant vice president for Sponsored Programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, recommends creating a pre-deadline deadline.

Her office worked with faculty, schools and departments to establish the submission of proposals a full seven days before their due dates. This gave the office time to strengthen merit of the research project and fix minor details that could disqualify a proposal.

“Within our School of Medicine, more than 80 percent of our proposals came in by our pre-deadline,” she said. “We work hard to communicate and advocate to faculty that we can serve them better by doing it this way, and it’s working for us.”

Ultimately, there are lots of processes university research offices have to put in place to do the business of research. But to be better leaders, the administration should engage its primary audience: the faculty.

Engagement in policy-making, for instance, gives insight into pain points and allows research offices to put the best processes in place to get the job done for everyone.

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This article originally appeared on the University of Houston's The Big Idea. Lindsay Lewis, the author of this piece, formerly served as the executive director of communications for the UH Division of Research.

Faculty in academia shouldn't be hesitant to follow their entrepreneurial goals just because it may be difficult to balance the two worlds. Graphic by Miguel Tovar/University of Houston

University of Houston: Tips for balancing faculty and founder life

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Finding balance in your professional life and your dreams can be hard for anyone. Faculty in academia, hoping to become entrepreneur and start their own companies, find this especially difficult. Finding this balance is essential to having success both professionally and in entrepreneurial endeavors.

Amy J. Ko, a professor at the University of Washington Information School and Co-Founder of AnswerDash, said in a post on her Bits and Behavior blog that she found parallels between being an entrepreneur and being a professor that helped her start her technology company.

Here are four parallels between startup life and faculty life that Ko found striking.

1. Fundraising.

"I spend a significant amount of my time seeking funding, carefully articulating problems with the status quo and how my ideas will solve these problems. The surface features of the work are different—in business, we pitch these ideas in slide decks, elevators, whereas in academia, we pitch them as NSF proposals and DARPA white papers—but the essence of the work is the same: it requires understanding the nature of a problem well enough that you can persuade someone to provide you resources to understand it more deeply and ultimately address it."

2. Experimentation.

"Research requires a high degree of iteration and experimentation, driven by carefully formed hypotheses. Startups are no different. We are constantly generating hypotheses about our customers, our end users, our business plan, our value, and our technology, and conducting experiments to verify whether the choice we've made is a positive or negative one."

3. Learning.

"Both academia and startups require a high degree of learning. As a professor, I'm constantly reading and learning about new discoveries and new technologies that will change the way I do my own research. As a founder, and particularly as a CTO, I find myself engaging in the same degree of constant learning, in an effort to perfect our product and our understanding of the value it provides."

4. Teaching.

"The teaching I do as a CTO is comparable to the teaching I do as a Ph.D. advisor in that the skills I'm teaching are less about specific technologies or processes, and more about ways of thinking about and approaching problems."

Ko also mentions the distinct differences between the two are the pace, the outcomes, and the consequences.

Finding Balance as a Professor and Entrepreneur

Alaina G. Levine, an award-winning entrepreneur, science journalist, and STEM careers consultant said in a Science Mag blog post that the key to success is to find ways to balance the two worlds.

"Issues of intellectual property ownership, human resources protocols, and time management, as well as the challenge of keeping a delineated barrier between professorial and business activities can be difficult to manage, but these concerns shouldn't prevent academics from seeking to create a startup company," Levine said in the blog post.

How to Balance Entrepreneurship and Faculty Responsibilities

According to Levine, these are a few things to consider before perusing entrepreneurship in order to successfully balance professorial and entrepreneurial activities:

1. Know your priorities

"If you are a professor who ponders whether your research can be developed into a technology that can be commercialized, your initial step should be to ponder your priorities. Do you want to stay in academia? Do you desire a career in industry? Deciding these choices early on, even before the lawyers and university representatives get involved, is crucial to forging a balance and a satisfying career."

2. Figuring out what path to take

"To wrangle the options and make it through the multiverse of marketing and manufacturing without sacrificing professorial duties, an academic's initial stop should be their institution's office of technology transfer (OTT). The OTT can assist faculty with understanding how much time they can spend on outside endeavors and how it must be structured. Technology transfer professionals also provide insight into patent law and can help professors navigate intellectual property (IP) issues."

3. Managing potential conflicts of interest

"Once you engage in entrepreneurship, you must create a distinct separation between your university lab and your company's facilities. IP can't flow freely between the two, and neither can labor—your grad students cannot work for you in your group and intern at your company at the same time. Safeguards that prevent mingling are necessary for legal purposes, say experts, as well as to synthesize a balance between being in academia and being in business."

4. Getting a Return on Investment on the faculty side

"Even with a targeted separation of academic and business endeavors, pursuing commercialization can actually enhance your skills in education. The connections that faculty make not only help the students but benefit the department and university as a whole as well."

What's The Big Idea?

Faculty in academia shouldn't be hesitant to follow their entrepreneurial goals just because it may be difficult to balance the two worlds. Take what you already know as a professor and apply it to your new venture as an entrepreneur. Also, know where your priorities lie, what path you're taking, watch out for conflicts of interest and make sure you, your students and university are all getting something out of it.

According to both writers, universities and research go hand in hand and both are "of critical importance" to the advancement of our society. So, is your research impactful? If the answer is yes, go for it.

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This article originally appeared on the University of Houston's The Big Idea. Cory Thaxton is the communications coordinator for The Division of Research.

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Here’s where wages grew the most in Houston since 2021, according to new report

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Bolstered by a thriving manufacturing sector, Waller County—the country’s second-fastest-growing county—leads all Houston-area counties for the growth of pay from 2021 to 2026, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by personal finance website SmartAsset, found average pay in Waller County rose 48 percent from 2021 to 2026. The county’s average weekly pay climbed from $891 to $1,323 during that period.

Manufacturing ranks as the No. 1 employment sector in Waller County, accounting for about 4,500 workers, according to Executive Pulse. Those workers earn an average pay of $77,442 per year.

Waller County powers up its manufacturing hub

Waller County’s manufacturing economy keeps expanding, almost certainly contributing to the 48 percent spike in average pay from 2021 to 2026.

Grundfos, the world’s largest producer of water pumps, broke ground in June on a manufacturing plant at its Brookshire campus. The Danish company’s U.S. headquarters is in Brookshire. In conjunction with the groundbreaking, Grundfos opened the Grundfos Academy Americas training center.

The new 143,000-square-foot facility will make pump systems and water technology, primarily for water utilities and commercial real estate landlords.

Grundfos expects construction to be completed by Q3 2027, with the first production lines planned to start in Q4 of next year.

“Our growing presence in Brookshire reflects both our confidence in the U.S. market and our long‑term commitment to investing where our customers and partners need us most,” Grundfos CEO Poul Due Jensen said in a release.

Another manufacturer, TMEIC Corporation America, recently opened its third U.S. plant at Twinwood Business Park in Brookshire. The 280,000-square-foot facility, which eventually might employ 500 people, makes uninterruptible power supply units and medium-voltage power drives. The $65 million plant includes a customer training center and tech development labs.

The Twinwood facility is the largest of TMEIC’s 13 factories around the world.

TMEIC’s two other U.S. manufacturing plants are in the Houston area. The company’s North American headquarters is in the Houston Energy Corridor.

Perhaps the biggest recent manufacturing prize for Waller County: Austin-based electric vehicle maker Tesla’s new 1.65 million-square-foot factory at Brookshire’s Empire West Industrial Park. The $200 million plant, expected to employ up to 1,500 people by 2028, produces utility-scale batteries for energy storage.

Other major manufacturers in Waller County include Daikin North America and Igloo.

Pay growth around the region

Here’s a rundown of 2021-26 pay growth in the Houston metro’s eight other counties, according to SmartAsset.

Austin County — 42 percent
Chambers County — 37 percent
Harris County — 33 percent
Liberty County — 31 percent
Montgomery County — 29 percent
Fort Bend County — 28 percent
Galveston County — 26 percent
Brazoria County — 23 percent

Statewide, Dickens County, outside of Lubbock, saw the most significant growth in wages. According to the study, wages grew by 212 percent over the five years, from $707 per week in 2021 to $2,204 per week in 2026.

Among all Texas counties, Waller was ranked No. 44 on the report.

Small counties in the High Plains and West Texas regions saw the largest percent changes in average weekly wage, according to the report. See the full findings here.

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10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for October

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Editor's note: Healthcare and energy conferences headline this month's slate of innovation events in Houston. But there's also time for family-friendly gatherings and pickleball socials. Here’s what not to miss in October and how to register. Please note: this article may be updated to add more events.

Oct. 2 — Joy in Medicine Initiative Symposium

The Houston Methodist Joy in Medicine Initiative Symposium will explore the power of connection in enhancing professional fulfillment for clinicians and healthcare teams, this year with the theme of "Forging New Paths: Leadership, Connection & Innovation to Sustain Joy in Medicine." Hear from Dr. Shlomit Schall, Houston Methodist Physician Organization president and CEO and chief physician executive; Houston Methodist CEO Marc Boom; and Dr. Albert Wu, from Johns Hopkins, author of Therefore, Let us Rejoice: Sustaining Joy in Medicine. Stick around for a networking happy hour.

This event is Friday, Oct. 2, from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at Thompson Houston on Allen Parkway. Find more information here.

Oct. 6-7 — Hydrogen Americas Summit and Exhibition

Hydrogen Americas delivers an unparalleled opportunity to explore how hydrogen integrates with CCUS and other energy solutions under the new U.S. and Americas energy paradigm. This event moves to Houston in 2026, providing unmatched access to industry leaders and opportunities. The summit will include CCUS-dedicated sessions integrated directly into the conference programming, providing deeper insights into carbon capture, utilization and storage. Look forward to networking opportunities to connect with global suppliers, regional developers and key policymakers.

This event begins Oct. 6 at George R. Brown Convention Center. Register here.

Oct. 6-7 — Annual Energy Summit — Energy, Risk, and Geopolitics

The 10th annual energy summit is co-hosted by Baker Botts and the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute. This year's summit, “Energy, Risk, and Geopolitics,” will explore how a changing geopolitical landscape and shifts in supply chain risks are impacting investment, innovation and market dynamics. The two-day program will include discussions spanning petroleum and LNG markets, critical minerals, electricity reliability, AI and power demand.

This event begins Oct. 6 at 7:30 am at James A Baker III Hall. The event will also be livestreamed. Register here.

Oct. 7 – Rockets Get You to Orbit. Culture Gets You to Stay

The Ion will host a morning discussion exploring humanity’s future in space. The event will feature Rick Tumlinson, author of Why Space? The Purpose of People; Scott Solomon, author of Becoming Martian; and David Alexander and Alexander Regier of Rice University’s new Space Humanities Initiative. The conversations will be moderated by EarthLight Foundation Director Junaid Mian.

This event is Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 8:30-11 a.m. at the Ion. Register here.

Oct. 8 — Greentown Labs’ Fall Pickleball Social

Greentown Labs hosts its fall social at Pickle Lab HTX this month. Enjoy friendly matches, networking and light bites. All skill sets are welcome.

This event is Thursday, Oct. 8, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Pickle Lab HTX. Register here.

Oct. 10 – Ion Family Tech Festival

Bring the whole family out to the second Ion Family Tech Festival. Kids will get to participate in hands-on STEAM workshops and learn more about STEAM-related careers.

This event is Saturday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

Oct. 13 – Mercury Fund Day at the Ion

Don’t miss the latest installment of Mercury Fund Day at the Ion, previously known as Software Day. The recurring monthly event features office hours (by application), a keynote and networking opportunities.

This event is Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 3:30-7 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

Oct. 14 — Future of Global Energy Conference

This October, the sixth annual Future of Global Energy Conference kicks off, convening influential leaders from across energy, technology, finance and public policy who will come together to explore the forces defining the next era of global energy and Houston’s role in shaping it. Ryan Lance, Executive Chairman of ConocoPhillips and 2027 Chair of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Board of Directors, is the keynote speaker for this year’s conference, bringing a global perspective on rising demand, market volatility and Houston’s role in the next era of energy growth.

This event takes place Oct. 14 at the Marriott Marquis. Register here.

Oct. 17 — Energy Day 2026

Energy Day Houston is the nation’s largest free, family-friendly STEM festival. It features over 50 interactive exhibits and live demonstrations focused on traditional and emerging energy career paths to power up your curiosity.

This event begins at 11 a.m. on Oct. 17 at Sam Houston Park. Get details here.

Oct. 22 — Rice360 Innovation for Healthcare Access Conference

Researchers and innovators from Rice University, the Texas Medical Center, non-profit organizations, healthcare providers and others will come together to explore gaps in healthcare at the Innovation for Healthcare Access Conference. The event will feature speakers, workshops and case study presentations and will focus on innovations for the health of women and children in underserved rural and urban communities across Texas.

This event is Thursday, Oct. 22, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Rice University BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC). Register here.

Oct. 28-29 – TiECon 2026

TiE Houston, TiE Dallas and TiE Austin are joining forces to host TiEcon Texas 2026 at the Ion this month. The event will focus on how automation, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping Texas industries, the economy and daily life. The conference will feature keynotes, panels, fireside chats and the TiE Hatch Pitch Competition.

This event starts Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Ion. Register here.

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