Strengthening an Inclusive Innovation Ecosystem through an Historically Black Colleges and Universities Community of Practice

自2017年以来，在美国国家科学基金会（NSF）历史上的黑人学院和大学-本科生项目（HBCU-UP）的支持下，美国科学促进会（AAAS）通过专门开发和利用HBCU的人才及其作为当地社区经济引擎和创新竞技场领导者的潜力，努力支持包容性创新。AAAS HBCU创新计划通过其实践社区（CoP）提供培训，指导，和资源超过350 HBCU的学生和教师从38个机构开发创新解决重大挑战和全球性问题的框架由联合国（UN）可持续发展目标（SDGs）。这三个-一年的项目将建立在创建和利用包容性创新生态系统的目标之上，使HBCU的学生和教师不仅能够追求，而且能够领导国家在发明，创新，制造，和创业竞技场。包容性创新生态系统的预期成果包括培养HBCU的跨学科人才，并将学生和教师定位为变革者，以解决他们所在社区的重大挑战，美国，和全球范围内。有针对性的项目活动将为学生提供更强的认同感，将自己视为发明家，创新者，制造商和企业家。教师将被授权支持学生的创新职业途径，并接受培训和资源，以领导他们的教室和研究实验室的创新工作。该项目将通过提供最佳实践和战略的知识来推动该领域的发展，以扩大创新相关领域的参与，并通过采用CoP和包容性生态系统作为模型和框架来提高HBCU的创新能力。嵌入式研究将参与并利用HBCU社会科学研究人员的专业知识作为知识生成的合作伙伴，以最好地提高HBCU的创新能力。与HBCU学者的这种关键利益相关者伙伴关系和参与式研究方法将为未来在HBCU校园创新中识别，扩展和维持机构能力建设的努力奠定基础。活动将为HBCU的学生和教师提供培训和资源，以开发与创新相关的原型，解决关键的社会问题。指导，辅导和培训将帮助学生和教师在他们的校园创新领导者。一个外部评估小组将评估项目的总体影响，并解决指导研究的具体研究问题。这些活动与下列目标相一致：1）通过参与AAAS HBCU制作和创新展示，扩大和扩大学生和教师在创新，技术转让和产品商业化方面的培训，2）扩大教师培训，包括有针对性的PD和领导力轨道，3）推进校园能力建设，4）扩大CoP，以利用新的战略合作伙伴关系，5）通过嵌入式研究推进包容性创新的证据基础。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Since 2017 with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has led efforts to support inclusive innovation by specifically developing and leveraging the talent at HBCUs and their potential to serve as economic engines in their local communities and leaders in the innovation arena. The AAAS HBCU Innovation Initiative via it’s Community of Practice (CoP) has provided training, mentoring, and resourcing of over 350 HBCU students and faculty from 38 institutions to develop innovations addressing grand challenges and global issues framed by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).This three-year project will build upon the CoP’s goal of creating and leveraging an inclusive innovation ecosystem to empower HBCU students and faculty to not only pursue, but lead national efforts in the invention, innovation, making, and entrepreneurship arena. Anticipated outcomes from the inclusive innovation ecosystem include fostering the transdisciplinary talent at HBCUs and positioning students and faculty to become change makers to solve the grand challenges in their community, the U.S., and globally. The targeted project activities will provide students with a stronger sense of identity in seeing themselves as inventors, innovators, makers, and entrepreneurs. Faculty will be empowered to support student innovation career pathways and receive training and resources to lead innovation efforts in their classrooms and research labs.This project will advance the field by providing knowledge of best practices and strategies in broadening participation in innovation related areas and advancing innovation capacity at HBCUs by employing a CoP and inclusive ecosystems as models and frameworks. The embedded research study will engage and leverage the expertise of HBCU social science researchers as collaborative partners in knowledge generation on how best to advance innovation capacity at HBCUs. This key stakeholder partnership and participatory research approach with HBCU scholars will lay the foundation for future efforts to identify, scale and sustain institutional capacity building in innovation on HBCU campuses. Activities will equip HBCU students and faculty with the training and resources to develop innovation related prototypes addressing critical societal issues. Mentoring, coaching and training will assist students and faculty in serving as innovation leaders on their campuses. An external evaluation team will assess the overall project impacts, and to address the specific research questions that will guide the research study. The activities align with the following objectives: 1) Expand and scale student and faculty training in innovation, tech transfer, and product commercialization through participation in the AAAS HBCU Making and Innovation Showcase, 2) Expand faculty training to include a targeted pd and leadership track, 3) Advance on-campus capacity building, 4) Expand the CoP to leverage new strategic collaborative partnerships, and 5) Advance the evidence base on inclusive innovation via an embedded research study.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.