Samantha Roth
Guilford College, NC·Education Research
Small colleges that focus on teaching undergraduates often have faculty eager to work on real-world problems with local companies, but lack the institutional machinery to do so: no clear intellectual property policies, no templates for partnership agreements, no staff dedicated to maintaining industry relationships. This collaborative project asks how primarily undergraduate institutions can build that capacity, so that research and innovation partnerships become routine rather than one-off efforts.
- Fields
Education Research
Social Science
- Topics
primarily undergraduate institutions
research capacity building
industry partnerships
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2028
What they work on
- Identify and repair gaps in institutional policies and processes, including intellectual property rights policies and partnership agreements, that currently limit research and community partnerships at a primarily undergraduate institution.
- Provide professional development and incentives that expand faculty and staff involvement in use-inspired research, meaning work motivated by practical regional problems, and in institutional capacity building.
- Build durable relationships with local industry and regional innovation ecosystems using dedicated liaisons who act as catalysts for partnership development.
- Establish a campus center or hub designed to sustain partnership and research capacity after the four-institution SPARK cohort concludes, while sharing lessons across the cohort.
More about the research
Four geographically diverse primarily undergraduate institutions form the SPARK cohort, each addressing its own obstacles while working toward four shared objectives. Each institution will audit and repair the internal policies and processes that currently hinder research and community partnerships, including intellectual property rights policies and partnership agreements. Each will offer professional development and incentives so faculty and staff take part in use-inspired research, meaning research motivated by practical problems, and in building institutional capacity. Each will strengthen ties to local industry and regional innovation ecosystems through dedicated liaisons who act as relationship-builders and catalysts. Finally, each will create a center or hub intended to sustain these gains after the cohort itself ends. Throughout, the institutions learn from one another as a community, so that each can apply its own resources and expertise to the challenges of its particular region, and position itself to pursue external funding.
Why it matters
Primarily undergraduate institutions educate many students but are often shut out of industry-partnered research because they lack intellectual property policies, partnership templates and dedicated liaison staff. Building that capacity could open applied research and innovation opportunities for their faculty and students, and connect regional employers to local expertise. The cohort model may offer a template other small colleges can follow.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Katie Jolicoeur
Minnesota State University-Mankato, MN·Education Research
Establish institutional policies and structures that let primarily undergraduate and emerging research universities form external technology partnerships efficiently and professionally.
Matthew Enjalran
Southern Connecticut State University, CT·Education Research
Build a community of practice among three primarily undergraduate institutions to develop and strengthen research partnerships with small and medium-sized businesses in emerging technologies.
Roberto Flores
Christopher Newport University, VA·Education Research
Identify best practices from successful model institutions for building and sustaining partnerships between primarily undergraduate institutions and industry.
The school
Guilford College: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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