Category: Announcements

If you know me, you know my tagline “Innovation lies at the intersection of disciplines” and that I spend a great deal of time exploring this concept. This exploration aligns with serving as vice president for research, but for me it’s much deeper rooted. 

Innovation has always been at the core of my professional career. Yes, I’m proud of the startup that evolved to a stable company, providing a commercial conduit for my technologies, and allowed me to move an idea from the laboratory into the hands of clinicians and pharma in order to serve patients. But innovation has more fundamentally served me well in addressing daily questions, like “how can I solve this problem with limited funding and supplies?” Or “how can I transform learning into a more engaging experience for my students?” Or “how can this be accomplished in the face of opposing factors?” 

Indeed, innovation goes far beyond commercialization; as we look across the university, I see UGA students, staff, and faculty thinking about the past, present, and future, creating new ideas, solutions, works, services, etc., with social imperative. 

In the Office of Research (OoR), we are committed to providing the UGA community with tools and support to develop innovation skills that will springboard endeavors “to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things” and realize the greatest impact.

Over the past few weeks, we have been excited to celebrate honors to some of our innovators. Provost Jack Hu and Professor Holly Sellers were elected as Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). This week we relayed that five new faculty—Elizabeth Brisbois (Engineering), David Crich (Pharmacy), Qingguo “Jack” Huang and Paul Raymer, and Ralph Tripp (VetMed)— are new NAI Senior Members. And earlier today we also announced the appointment of Professor Valentine Nzengung as UGA’s newest Regents’ Entrepreneur. 

UGA innovators and their innovations clearly are having impact.

However, we are most excited to see that innovation continues to live and grow across UGA.  In two weeks, we will celebrate and be inspired by arts and humanities innovators through the 2024 Humanities Festival. We will see innovation through the blend of poetry and music or the use of artificial intelligence to probe the stories that shape society and our cultural perspectives, or the profound influence of humanities research on documentary filmmaking.

Innovation has always been fundamental to UGA’s land grant mission, and the Office of Research is here to help scholars who want to explore and embrace unique angles to grow their ideas. 

As the university’s technology transfer office, Innovation Gateway works to ensure that UGA research discoveries reach their full potential for public benefit. UGA ranks No. 1 among U.S. universities—we have never fallen out of the Top 5—for number of commercial products translated from research.

How do we do this? Innovation Gateway helps translate research discoveries into products, companies, and transformations through partnering with industry and economic development partners. UGA’s industry partners have brought to market more than 1,150 total products based on our research. 

Innovation Gateway offers programs of support for all stages of the entrepreneurial journey. Innovation Bootcamp was established by OoR to offer tailored training for success in an entrepreneurial environment. Innovation Gateway’s National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program teaches scholars how to create a value proposition and conduct customer discovery research; pitch training programs help inventors learn how to communicate with and—more importantly—listen to the non-technical world.

We also provide assistance to secure funding and mentors. Innovation Gateway staff can assist with proposals to the Georgia Research Alliance as well as federal funding agencies that offer innovation programs. With an extensive list of internal and external mentors across a wide variety of subjects, Innovation Gateway matches innovators with experts who can help refine goals/plans and identify resources. 

Commercialization is important work in our office; however, I will emphasize again that innovation goes far beyond this important activity. As innovation opportunities evolve, we are excited to show UGA innovators how the tools Innovation Gateway offers apply well beyond commercialization.

A good example stems from the NSF I Corps-L program and its underlying tenet, which suggested that a teaching innovation, which one would want widely distributed and adopted (at minimal to no cost), would benefit from the same analysis as a widget produced in a manufacturing environment. Kind of astounding!  

Innovation is not static— we are constantly seeking new avenues to support the UGA community; for example, we are excited to have envisioned and helped establish the Humanities Council to support innovators. 

In summary, there is a gateway to innovation at UGA that you will find within the Office of Research. If you’re excited about evolving your ideas in unexpected directions, or simply want to increase the impact of your work, please consider this your invitation to visit the Delta Innovation Hub or contact Innovation Gateway at gateway@uga.edu. Help us innovate the innovation process at UGA!

Karen J.L. Burg
Vice President for Research
Harbor Lights Chair in Biomedical Research

Whether we’re teaching in a classroom, conducting research or creative inquiry in a laboratory, studio or field site, or engaging in a service opportunity, we want our efforts to make a difference in the world. As researchers, we all hope the intellectual, creative, and scientific merits of our work translate into positive change or impact on some level.

Increasingly, federal agencies are looking beyond simply the scientific merits of the research they fund and asking submitters to describe the “broader impacts” of a proposed project. How will it advance a societal goal ancillary to the research itself? Does it contribute to national security or the United States’ economic competitiveness? Does it help build an inclusive, STEM-capable workforce? Does it improve health and well-being? Does it help us learn from our past in order to better plan our future?

On its website, the National Science Foundation (NSF) explains the importance of broader impact statements in funding proposals and, as a public-serving organization, details the agency’s priorities for those impacts. Other agencies may refer to the concept as “societal impact” or “knowledge transfer,” but the idea is the same.

As a land- and sea-grant institution with a public service mandate, UGA’s mission to move research out of the lab and into our communities is closely aligned with the goals of broader impact statements. Just like the agencies that fund our work, we are a public institution with an obligation to share the benefits of our research with the public.

Broader impacts come in many forms. A significant broader impact might occur by fashioning a project with purposeful inclusion of diverse opinions and perspectives, with particular attention on engagement of those who are often underrepresented or absent from important conversations. Another project with broader impact might be an effort to improve education and teacher-development at one or multiple levels from K-12 and beyond.

Public engagement and communication are also forms of broader impact. Working with UGA communications staff to publicize research projects and outcomes is just one example; others include visiting local schools or other organizations to talk about research, holding public events, or submitting op-eds or other narratives to mainstream media.

UGA has a range of resources to help researchers explore avenues to broaden the impact of their work. To name a few:

• Innovation Gateway staff members can assist researchers with entrepreneurship and technology commercialization.
• Cooperative Extension agents and specialists serve all of Georgia’s 159 counties and are trusted and knowledgeable collaborators to the communities they serve, as well as to UGA. They provide a ready conduit between UGA research and innovation and the communities we seek to serve.
• Public Service & Outreach initiatives like the Archway Partnership or units such as the Carl Vinson Institute of Government can help researchers access and synthesize community relevant data and understand the policy making channels and processes.
• Programs like Young Dawgs and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation can help researchers connect with high school students with diverse backgrounds.
• For researchers interested in K-12 student and teacher outreach, the Mary Frances Early College of Education Office of Research and Graduate Education can facilitate collaboration with school districts.

Earlier this month, Jake Maas, director of our Office for Proposal Enhancement, led a Research Live webinar about broader impacts that featured the experiences of four faculty members who have had success crafting broader impacts statements in their proposals. The event provided firsthand knowledge about what funding agencies value in such statements, how to make related activities workable within the scope of the larger project, and how to capture and communicate the broader impacts themselves.

As we begin 2024, let’s think creatively about ways in which we might translate research into societal impact. Let’s look at our project plans and ask the tough question of ourselves: “So what?” Impactful work magnifies the ultimate value of the research and almost always results in new opportunities for application and collaboration. Impactful work is fundamental to the mission of UGA and, most importantly, imperative to the world we serve.

I wish you all the best for a successful and productive spring semester!

Karen J.L. Burg
Vice President for Research
Harbor Lights Chair in Biomedical Research