Timothy Miller
Saint Francis University, PA·Education Research
How can small, teaching-focused colleges become engines of innovation for the regions around them? Many primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) serve rural, low-income, first-generation or historically underrepresented students in STEM.
- Fields
Education Research
Social Science
- Topics
innovation ecosystem
primarily undergraduate institutions
STEM workforce development
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Build innovation capacity at each of five primarily undergraduate institutions, developing campus structures for industry partnerships, entrepreneurship, experiential learning and research suited to undergraduate-focused colleges.
- Establish shared best practices for innovation at PUIs, covering workforce development, investors, entrepreneurship and regulatory issues, through a cohort-based community of practice across the five member institutions.
- Expand access to advanced STEM careers in each region, particularly for rural, low-income, first-generation and historically underrepresented students, by strengthening links between the colleges and their regional economies.
- Develop models and best practices for building innovation ecosystems that primarily undergraduate institutions nationwide could adopt, drawing on the cohort's collective experience.
More about the research
These colleges often lack the structures that help larger universities connect students and research with industry, investors and new businesses. Building those structures could give students better access to advanced STEM careers in their own regions and let the colleges play a larger part in local economies.
Why it matters
Rural and regional communities served by small colleges could gain from campuses that are better able to meet local economic and community needs. Students at these institutions, many of them low-income, first-generation or from groups underrepresented in STEM, could gain clearer paths into a fast-changing, advanced STEM workforce. Other primarily undergraduate institutions across the country could use the cohort's practices and models to build their own innovation capacity.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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.
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.
Shannon Beasley
Middle Georgia State University, GA·Education Research
Build partnerships with industry experts and government agencies to identify the skills and knowledge needed for STEM jobs across four diverse institutions in the SUPER Partnerships Collaborative.
The school
Saint Francis University: 1 labs on PI Pages.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.