Evaluation of Interdisciplinary Research Centers Results in Sunsetting of Three Units
An evaluation of research-focused centers within university-wide institutes, initiatives and centers has resulted in the decision to sunset the Biodemography of Aging Research Unit (BARU), the Center for Advanced Hindsight (CAH), and Healthy Eating Research (HER).
The review, undertaken as part of Duke’s program of strategic realignment and initiated late last spring, was led by the Office of the Provost with extensive input from a faculty advisory committee selected in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Academic Council. During the summer and fall of 2025, the advisory committee evaluated 27 centers on five criteria: degree of engagement with faculty and students, focus on areas of strategic priority, excellence in research outputs, prospects for long-term sustainability, and reasonable administrative requirements.
BARU and CAH, both hosted by the Social Science Research Institute, will close at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30. HER, hosted by the Duke Global Health Institute, will close once funding is exhausted in 2027.
“I am grateful to the faculty and staff of these three centers for their longstanding contributions to Duke and their fields of inquiry, as well as to the committee members for the care with which they conducted this review,” said Ed Balleisen, senior vice provost for interdisciplinary programs and initiatives. “While this process has required difficult decisions, the outcomes will enable the university to focus resources on interdisciplinary research communities engaging the broadest number of faculty and students.”
BARU undertakes complex quantitative analyses related to aging and lifespan. Its researchers have produced numerous groundbreaking peer-reviewed scientific publications. Recognition of the unit’s cutting-edge approaches helped the team secure funding from the NIH/NIA for a major program project, “Relationships Between Genetic Regulators of Aging, Health, and Lifespan,” and for the project “Genetics of Changes in Population Pyramids: Implications for Health Forecasting.”
CAH applies behavioral insights to a wide array of contexts, including decision-making related to personal finance and health. Its researchers have completed over 2,000 studies on the digital platform, MTurk, and its outputs have included frequent academic publications and numerous reports and articles in newspapers and magazines that explain behavioral science concepts. Through the center’s Common Cents Lab, researchers design and test solutions to increase the financial well-being of low- to moderate-income people living in the U.S.
HER is a national research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that has worked to identify strategies that improve children’s nutrition and prevent childhood obesity, especially among populations at highest risk. HER’s focus on policies and environmental factors shaping eating habits and weight successfully shifted the field of childhood nutrition and obesity prevention from individual responsibility to systemic, policy-driven solutions.