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The Presidential Initiatives Fund Records (9.5 linear feet) cover the many aspects of the administration of that award program. In 1986, President Shapiro applied to the W.C. Kellogg Foundation for a grant to promote inventive interdisciplinary research and innovative teaching and learning environments at the University. Kellogg responded with a grant for a five year, five million dollar to implement a Presidential Initiatives Fund (PIF) program at UM, which the University matched with an additional five million dollars. After a three-year extension to the original Kellogg grant, the University continued PIF as a program of its own.

The Office of the Vice President for Research had oversight responsibility for the administration of these funds, and reported to the President's Office and the Kellogg Foundation on the program's accomplishments. Much of this responsibility fell to Assistant VP Marvin Parnes, who compiled these records. Nevertheless, the President's Office had great say in the process of awarding the grants to faculty, playing an active role in reviewing and selecting grantees. Moreover, while funds in the first few years of the program were granted in open competition, during the program years of around 1989-1994 the President hand-picked award topics and program directions based on conversations with deans, directors, and the OVPR. After this interlude, OVPR returned the granting of PIF awards to an open competition.

The highest-level overview of the PIF program can be found in the first sub-series, which consists of the correspondence between the W.C. Kellogg Foundation and the University, including OVPR's annual reports assessing the program's accomplishments and impact on the University.

The second sub-series, OVPR Grant Administration, details the process of managing the awards, including how the projects were requested, reviewed, and selected. This sub-series highlights changes in the direction of the program over the years. The OVPR Grant Administration records also include all of the original proposals for the open-competition phases of the PIF program, as well as the reviewers' comments on and rankings of the proposals. These proposals and comments provide insight into the breadth of and popular trends in research ideas at the University during the mid 80s through the mid 90s.

Finally, those wishing to get an in-depth view of the research and instructional projects sponsored by the PIF program should examine the third sub-series, comprised of the individual project files.