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9. Development of the Scientific Computing Center at Vanderbilt University 95ized that the whole education outreach efforts and low barriers to participation werepossible. For example, Alan interacted with other research groups on campus, talkingwith them, and working with them. He also taught a class 11 with Greg Walker 12 fromengineering about methods of parallelizing applications. ...We realized that there wasa lot of interest on campus. There weren’t just going to be a few dedicated computernerds using it. There were a lot of people on campus who could benefit from this witha little bit of help.” Ultimately, the SCC would not merely cater to a few users but wouldaim to serve the university community as a whole. In Jason’s words, “We wanted to setup a center that will span the entire university and reaches out to all people doing computationalwork in every department. We eventually hope to get people from music,law, and business using the system.”Obtaining FundingOnce the concept of the SCC was developed, the next step toward making it a realitywas to secure funding. However, initial attempts to find funding were unsuccessful.Tworequests were made to the NSF through its major research instrumentation 13 (MRI)program. This program aims to increase the scientific and engineering equipment forresearch by supporting large-scale instrumentation investments.Awards typically rangebetween $70,000 and $140,000. Both applications for the SCC asked for $1.5 millionbut barely missed approval. In addition, Jason in 2001 submitted an application to thehigh-end instrumentation program 14 of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Itreceived good scores and good reviews, but it did not get approval for the $1.5 millionamount that he requested.Besides external federal funding, internal funding through the university was possible.The university’s Academic Venture Capital Fund 15 (AVCF) was established tolaunch major new transinstitutional initiatives in order to advance Vanderbilt to thefront rank of American research universities. The application process required submissionto at least one of two strategic academic planning groups (SAPGs), whichincluded one for the medical center and one for the university central. In the eventthat a proposal involved both the medical center and the university, simultaneous considerationwould be conducted by both SAPGs, and this was the case with the SCCproposal. If SAPG approval is given, proposals are forwarded to the integrated financialplanning (IFP) council for further consideration, and the final step for approval isa recommendation to the university chancellor for funding. One of the central requirementsfor a successful proposal was for it to satisfy a set of ten prespecified selectioncriteria including the following:1. The proposed effort is in accord with the Vanderbilt University chancellor’s fivebasic goals for academic excellence and strategic growth:• We must renew our commitment to the undergraduate experience at Vanderbilt.• We must reinvent graduate education at Vanderbilt.• We must reintegrate professional education with the intellectual life of theuniversity.• We must reexamine and restructure economic models for the university.• We must renew Vanderbilt’s covenant with the community.2. The proposed effort will help advance Vanderbilt to the front rank of Americanuniversities. To offer only two examples, this could be accomplished by bringing