The Emergence and Impact of Regional Research University Collaborations: The Rapidly Changing Landscape in University Research and Innovation

Regional universities are expanding rapidly in their research impact today. More generally, these universities are emerging rapidly in their significance and in their ability to produce rapid positive social change. Many national laboratories have developed research opportunities and shared governance through major research university collaborations, with an emphasis on nearby educational institutions. This is expanding state-of-the-art research facilities in less populated regions of the United States that were under-capitalized in research infrastructure in the past. Many regional research universities today are both Carnegie R1 (very high research) universities and Minority Serving Institutions, particularly R1 and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI). Twenty-one such educational institutions across the United States, including the University of South Florida, which launched the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) over a decade ago, are both Carnegie R1 universities and HSIs. Given the shift in the demographics of the United States, these minority-serving R1 research universities are likely to gain in their influence, impact, and prestige rapidly over the years to come. This paper provides a summary of the NAI panel discussion and more background information on this important topic.