Collaborative Research: EPIIC: Enabling Meaningful External Research Growth in Emergent Technologies (EMERGE)

EMERGE（在新兴技术中实现有意义的外部研究增长）小组由凯特林大学、世界大学、北科罗拉多大学和西卡罗莱纳大学组成。提高创新能力的新兴伙伴关系（EPIIC）项目的成员有一个共同的愿景，即在研发、将研究成果转化为实践和新兴技术领域的人才培养方面成为公认的合作伙伴。队列优势包括强大的社区和行业合作伙伴关系、多样化的学生群体和区域参与。这群人共同致力于社会和经济流动、赋权和社区发展，这是本项目活动的指导原则。在此基础上，同类机构将发展个人和联合能力，更有效地融入区域创新生态系统，并与新兴技术项目和领导者建立合作关系。该项目将产生广泛适用的数据驱动模型，可供其他以教学为重点的高等教育机构（IHEs）采用，以创建加速新兴技术区域创新的团队。“涌现”项目将带来一些社会成果，极大地惠及代表性不足的社区，包括西班牙裔/拉丁裔、黑人/非裔美国人、农村边缘化群体、第一代和低收入群体。建立的伙伴关系和网络将为这些团体提供参与区域创新生态系统的机会。由此产生的研究经验和劳动力发展培训将导致繁荣和可持续的创新社区，在代表性不足和边缘化地区向上流动，以及城市和农村人口的劳动力弹性。利用在新兴技术领域有丰富经验的广大人才库的见解，调动所有人才和资源来应对重大挑战，从而增加知识生产和创新。队列的主要目标包括：1)建立资源以支持研究开发和拓展能力；2)定义有效的合作模式；3)通过新兴品牌的门户网站营销队列大学的价值和独特性；4)在队列中交流和记录最佳实践。这些活动解决了同组机构目前面临的挑战，包括对成员机构缺乏认识/低估以及机构外联和建立关系能力有限。作为一个整体，这群人将开发EMERGE品牌，作为一个统一的信息，突出独特的机构优势，并促进与不同类型的机构合作的价值，这些机构有才华但未充分利用的学生、教师和员工。虽然群体一级的活动将协助外联工作，但群体机构也将侧重于扩大其建立区域伙伴关系的内部能力。在机构一级，队列成员将建立资源，以支持研究开发和外联能力，并制定伙伴关系模式，以吸引区域新兴技术利益相关者。为了加强个人努力，队列将1)部署EMERGE平台，为队列机构提供单一访问点；2)组织年度面对面峰会，建立关系，分享知识，调整队列战略；3)参加定期虚拟会议，促进沟通和持续合作；4)提供培训研讨会，交流最佳实践。将开发创新的伙伴关系模式，包括教师实习和研究员项目，以鼓励教师的专业发展和与外部合作伙伴的接触。除了EPIIC的资助，还有一个愿景是将EMERGE模型扩展到其他非r1 /R2机构，这将大大扩大项目的影响，并创建一个规模和范围与大型研究型大学相媲美的学校联盟。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The EMERGE (Enabling Meaningful External Research Growth in Emergent Technologies) Cohort consists of Kettering University, University of the Incarnate Word, University of Northern Colorado, and Western Carolina University. Members of the Emerging Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) Project share a common vision to EMERGE as recognized partners in research and development (R&D), translation of research into practice, and talent development in emerging technology fields. Cohort strengths include strong community and industry partnerships, diverse student populations, and regional engagement. The cohort shares a commitment to social and economic mobility, empowerment, and community development, which serves as a guiding principle for this project’s activities. To build on this foundation, cohort institutions will develop individual and joint capacities to integrate into regional innovation ecosystems more effectively and establish collaborative relationships with emerging technology programs and leaders. This project will generate broadly applicable, data-driven models that can be adopted by other teaching-focused Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to create cohorts that accelerate regional innovation in emerging technologies. The EMERGE Project will contribute to several societal outcomes that greatly benefit underrepresented communities, including Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African American, rurally-marginalized, first generation, and low income. The partnerships and networks developed will provide opportunities for these groups to engage with regional innovation ecosystems. The resulting research experiences and workforce development training will lead to thriving and sustainable communities of innovation, upward mobility among underrepresented and marginalized regions, and workforce resilience in both urban and rural populations. Bringing the full spectrum of talent and resources to bear on grand challenges will increase knowledge production and innovation by capturing the insights of a broad talent pool with experiences in emerging technology fields. Primary cohort objectives include 1) building resources to support research development and outreach capacity, 2) defining effective partnership models, 3) marketing the value and uniqueness of cohort universities through an EMERGE-branded web portal, and 4) exchanging and documenting best practices within the cohort. These activities address current challenges facing cohort institutions, including lack of awareness/underestimation of member institutions and limited institutional outreach and relationship-building capacity. As a group, the cohort will develop the EMERGE brand to serve as a unifying message highlighting unique institutional strengths and promoting the value of collaborating with diverse institution types with talented yet underutilized students, faculty, and staff. While outreach will be aided by cohort-level activities, cohort institutions will also focus on expanding their internal capacity to build regional partnerships. At the institution-level, cohort members will build resources to support research development and outreach capacity and develop partnership models for engaging regional emerging technology stakeholders. To amplify individual efforts, the cohort will 1) deploy the EMERGE platform to provide a single access point to cohort institutions, 2) organize annual in-person summits to build relationships, share knowledge, and align cohort strategy, 3) participate in regular virtual meetings to facilitate communication and ongoing collaboration, and 4) provide training workshops to exchange best practices. Innovative partnership models, including faculty internships and fellows programs, will be developed to encourage faculty professional development and engagement with external partners. Beyond EPIIC funding, there is a vision to expand the EMERGE model to include other non-R1/R2 institutions, which would significantly broaden the project’s impact and create a consortium of schools with the size and scope to rival large research universities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.