EAGER Germination Renewal: Piloting a Center for Transformative Research at Boise State University

This project addresses the critical need to foster transformative research ideas that can effectively address societal needs by developing a Center for Transformative Research at Boise State University. The project builds on a pilot award in which this team demonstrated preliminary proof-of-principle of the ability to build an ASSERTive community - Aligning Stakeholders and Structures to Enable Risk Taking. The proposed Center will have three major components: professional development for research-active faculty and post-doctoral fellows; alignment of university structures to support germination of transformative research questions and ideas; and longitudinal tracking of participants to measure the long-term impact of the Center. Successful development of this Center for Transformative Research could have several important impacts. Not only might it lead to development of new research programs that grapple with societally significant research problems, but it could also serve as a model for other emerging research-active universities.

In piloting a Center for Transformative Research, Boise State University will test a scalable platform for assisting faculty and post-doctoral fellows to pose transformative research questions, and engage students in research. The Center will reside structurally and culturally within the College of Innovation + Design, and will have strong ties to the Division of Research and Economic Development. During the grant period, the PIs will provide focused professional development for participants through retreats and workshops, enhancing their ability to develop their research identity, formulate transformative research questions, and advance their research agenda. A parallel goal is to re-imagine university structures to support the possibility of transformative research among the participants. Necessary conversations will include discussions of promotion and tenure policies, and mechanisms for rewarding high-risk projects and team science. Boise State can be considered representative of emerging research-active US universities - the middle class of higher education. The proposed approach could be scalable and transferable to similar institutions. Boise State's participation in the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Consortium, comprised of 24 national and international institutions, offers a potentially tractable route for dissemination.