Our Service Framework

AAP guides institutions from RCU designation toward R2 through five phases. Each phase builds on the one before it and concludes with a deliverable your institution can act on, whether or not you continue to the next phase. You move at the pace that fits your institution's needs, capacity, and commitment.

AAP works with you to build the institutional infrastructure that makes R2 designation achievable and the research mission that comes with it sustainable. Using our proprietary tools and frameworks, institutions often uncover opportunities that traditional planning processes miss, including:

  • Pathways to increase annual research doctorate production through strategic expansion of existing doctoral programs

  • Alignment with federal funding priorities not currently reflected in grant strategy

  • Stronger connections among doctoral growth, funding, and workforce needs

  • A clearer picture of your institution's trajectory toward Carnegie R2 eligibility

Is your institution closer to R2 than you think? The five phases are how we find out and how we help you get there.

  • Using AAP's R2 Readiness Tool, we analyze your published HERD spending and doctoral production against both R2 thresholds, identify the gap, and outline what closing it would take. A free, no-commitment first read on your institution's path to R2.

  • Get the complete picture, not just a snapshot of where your institution stands. Powered by AAP's R2 Readiness Tool, our full assessment goes deep by examining your doctoral programs, research infrastructure, and faculty capacity in detail. You receive a Comprehensive Readiness Report with specific gaps, real opportunities, and clear next steps.

  • Turn insight into a plan. Using AAP's Research and Doctoral Productivity Indexes, Grant Pathway Builder, and HERD Audit Toolkit, we will work with you to build a R2 Strategic Roadmap for your institution.

  • Using AAP's Research Growth Opportunity Plan and Doctoral Growth Opportunity Plan, AAP partners with your team to put the research administration, faculty support, and doctoral production systems in place to achieve results.

  • Stay on track, year after year. AAP's R2 Progress Dashboard benchmarks your progress, flags where strategy needs to adjust, sharpens your strategy as circumstances evolve, and helps your institution carry its R2 momentum all the way to designation and beyond.

Start the Conversation

Whether you are just beginning to explore R2 or already well on the path to R2 designation, we are here to support you. Tell us a little about your institution and we will be in touch within 2 business days.