Mary Lee Hummert is KU vice provost for faculty development. Currently she is serving as interim vice chancellor of research in the KU Office of Research.

The world of federally financed research was a lot brighter when Steve Warren took the job of vice chancellor for research at Kansas University than when he left it.

During Warren’s time, the KU Office of Research saw the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, federal funding cuts, sequestration and a federal government shutdown.

And yet, even in that climate, research at KU thrived under Warren. This spring, he announced he would step down from his post to return to full-time research and teaching, leaving some big shoes to fill for his successor.

Federally funded research at KU has grown for the past five years. For the 2013 fiscal year, KU logged a record $174 million in federal grants.

“I feel like we’re in really good shape considering the world we live in,” Warren told the Journal-World earlier this year.

This summer, Warren turned the post over to Mary Lee Hummert, vice provost for faculty development at KU, who will serve as interim vice chancellor of research until the position is filled permanently.

Hummert, who earned her Ph.D. from KU in 1987, has worked in the office before as an associate vice provost. She said the office had always been strong, and its performance in recent years is especially impressive.

“What’s really remarkable is the way faculty have been able to accelerate their research, even when it’s been more difficult to get funding.”

One of the ways universities measure their scholarly prowess is in how much external funding they can bring in. With so many institutions competing over many of the same dollars, the office is always looking at how it can improve university labs, personnel and resources to win grants.

Hummert said she will be working to push initiatives that began under Warren, including efforts to recruit new Foundation Professors and cluster hires, both of which are meant to build KU research strengths in targeted areas. She will also focus on diversifying the sources of research funding to include more money from private companies and foundations.

“What we’re working for is not so much money, but to ensure that we have the resources we need to produce research that is going to make a difference in people’s lives,” she said.