NSF Award
2309541
Building stronger connections among academic, private, and government communities is needed to translate basic science research into solutions that benefit society and to help fulfill the vision of the National Science Foundation to lead the world in science innovation. However, awareness of the reciprocal benefits of strong partnerships among science communities is lacking, and shared interests, community needs, and barriers to functional partnerships are not well defined. To overcome these gaps, a workshop will be held to develop recommendations on strengthening science community partnerships, and building pathways that speed the translation of research to innovations and enhance and expand inclusive and experiential training opportunities to prepare a diverse and globally competitive workforce. The workshop, led by two EPSCoR Jurisdictions (Idaho and Hawai’i), will consist of a series of national events facilitated by KnowInnovations: two free virtual Pre-Workshop MicroLabs for an unlimited number of participants and an In-Person Workshop for 120 selected participants representing diverse groups and organizations. Participants of the workshop will co-create the structures and processes that will inform how diverse organizations can support and collaborate on use-inspired research. The products of the workshops will include white papers that highlight opportunities and challenges for expanding use-inspired research and building partnerships that will lead to the translation of basic biological research into societal impact. <br/><br/><br/>To maintain global leadership in science innovation, new processes are needed to improve collaborations among academic, private, and government science communities to facilitate the translation of basic research to innovation and to better inform evidence-based practices. The current and next generation of researchers lack clear support pathways and training opportunities for careers in use-inspired research and science-informed practices. To find solutions, a workshop will be held that will build new connections among the three key science communities. The workshop, led by two EPSCoR Jurisdictions: Idaho and Hawai’i, will inform and recruit researchers nationally to new opportunities for use-inspired research and training, and future careers where science-informed practices can be implemented to balance the social, ecological, and economic needs of diverse communities. The workshop goals are to build awareness of the benefits of reciprocal partnerships, to identify shared interests, needs, and barriers, to develop recommendations for new structures and processes to accelerate use-inspired research, and to expand training opportunities for early career researchers. This workshop is for individuals in any organization at any career stage who wants to engage in use-inspired research, translation and partnership building. The workshop is also for participants from academic, government, and private organizations who want their science needs to be more broadly understood and incorporated into research priorities.<br/><br/><br/>This project is jointly funded by the Directorate of Biological Sciences, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships.<br/><br/>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.
