ART: Building an Innovation Ecosystem to Drive Economic Growth and AcceLUrate Research Translation at Lehigh University

This project seeks to enhance and accelerate the societal impact of research conducted at Lehigh University. This will be accomplished by creating and operating a comprehensive research translation ecosystem that effectively guides individuals and project teams along the pathways of venture creation, translation to existing industry, and/or social impact. All ecosystem components and activities will be designed and implemented to optimize diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. A people-focused approach will be taken to realize maximum impact on the targeted and campus wide graduate student, post-doctoral scholar, and faculty populations. These individuals will be supported by an active network of internal ART ambassadors, external experts, and an interdisciplinary project leadership team. The entire effort will also be enhanced by guidance and mentorship provided by Carnegie Mellon University, and assessed in real-time to assure continuous improvement and long term program sustainability. The research translation ecosystem at Lehigh University will be created through fully coupled initiatives focused on building inclusive research translation capacity and infrastructure, providing relevant education and training that is accessible to the target populations, and driving culture change toward research translation as a pervasive emphasis throughout the University community. This will involve the creation and/or expansion of research translation focused positions, organizational units, and facilities. The development and convenient offering of new single credit education and training modules will also be carried out, along with the modernization of institutional policies and practices to favorably support research translation. From a participant standpoint, individuals and project teams will be guided as they develop the mindsets, skill sets, and expert connections necessary to accelerate and optimize research impact. Carefully selected project teams will receive support each year as they carry out seed translational research projects to realize near term economic and/or societal benefit from the affiliated research innovations. The success of these targeted projects, along with the positive experiences of the individuals involved, will help position effective and use inspired translational impact as a foundational priority for university based research into the future. 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.