Research Infrastructure: The KCV EDGE Research Ecosystem

KCV EDGE builds on the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation’s centralized technology transfer mechanism for Kentucky’s public colleges and universities and leverages partnerships such as the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development to build competitiveness and capacity in regional institutions for securing and managing research grants. The innovative KCV EDGE model of shared, scaled services acts as a cost-effective, operational, and inclusive growth mechanism for partner institutions by providing lean, targeted approaches to commercialization, funding, and partnership opportunities. KCV EDGE will revolutionize the ability for emerging research institutions, such as regional, rural, and technical institutions of higher education, to achieve success in gaining and administering research funding by providing coordinated, holistic support for grant proposal development, administration/compliance, technology commercialization, and leadership development. The program is designed to be a catalyst for national transformation. Specifically, it aims to dismantle barriers for emerging research institutions by enabling participating institutions to support expanding efforts in research enterprise, establishing reporting systems to assess project impacts, evaluating research challenges and successes, and creating and implementing an accelerator model for research commercialization and grant administration. KCV EDGE will contribute to the competitiveness of Kentucky as a center for research while creating high-quality jobs in the region. Impact will be realized at regional, rural, technical, and other emerging research institutions of higher education, and the project will serve as a model to enhance the research landscape of developing research institutions across the country. 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.