Marvin Parnes is associate vice president for research and executive director of research administration at the University of Michigan. In the Office of the Vice President for Research, he shares oversight for infrastructure and administration, research administration, technology transfer, liaison with industry, and day-to-day administration of units reporting to the Vice President for Research. He coordinates “seed funding” for new scholarly projects and special needs in the research community. As executive director of research administration, he manages the Division of Research Development and Administration, which handles the development and administration of externally funded research, scholarship, and creative activity.
Mr. Parnes has been active in the restructuring of technology transfer at the University of Michigan. He has worked closely with the University of Michigan executive officers on the role and strategy of the University in regional economic development, resulting in the formation of SPARK, a partnership between universities, government, and businesses to promote innovation in the Ann Arbor area. He is the Principal Investigator for a statewide consortium of public universities to promote regional economic development and entrepreneurism, called the Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIIE). It was established with $2 million planning grant from the Mott Foundation and continued with a $1.5 million grant from the New Economy Initiative and a $1million grant from the Dow Foundation. MIIE has distributed $3.4 million since 2008. Mr. Parnes also chairs MIIE's predecessor program MUCI (Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative) which continues with limited funds realized from returns on previous investments. MUCI has distributed a total of $8.1 million in grants for technology commercialization projects.
At U-M, he has served on the Executive or Advisory Committee of many academic programs including, the South Africa Program, the Center for Global Health, the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society, the Arts of Citizenship, the U-M Depression Center, the Organizational Studies Program, the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, the National Center for Institutional Diversity, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy.
Mr. Parnes has served on many intellectual property and technology development committees and boards, including, the advisory board for the University of Michigan Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship, the Michigan Intellectual Property Commercialization Committee, and the Board of Directors of Fraunhofer USA. Parnes is the past Chair and Treasurer of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, as well as a member of the Board of Directors and has recently served as Chair of the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), a national association of research universities based in Washington, D.C. He is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness & Economic Prosperity.
Marvin Parnes received his BA in English from the City College of the City University of New York and his Master’s in Social Work from the University of Michigan. He has been on the professional staff at UM since 1974.
