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Roanoke College is part of a consortium that has been awarded $1.55 million in federal grant money to build partnerships with the region’s STEM-H (science, technology, engineering, math and health) innovation sector and strengthen the skilled workforce pipeline.
The three-year grant, bestowed by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s EPIIC program, is part of a nationwide push to expand higher ed partnerships and capitalize on what smaller colleges can offer the STEM-H innovation economy.
“This program is appropriately named because it’s presented us with a truly epic opportunity. It will allow us to make an impact both on and off campus in ways that are only possible thanks to this support,” said Len Pysh, a professor of biology and director of Roanoke College’s Center for Health Careers. Pysh will serve as EPIIC initiative director for the campus.
Roanoke College’s share of the grant funding will total $399,406. Its project, “Connect Four,” will see it join forces with other, diversified institutions to tackle four goals:
- Expand each institution’s capacity to pursue and sustain outside partnerships;
- Build connections with a wider network of community, industry, nonprofit and government partners;
- Develop improved means of communicating with key constituencies;
- Boost the success rate of growing community connections into sustainable, scalable partnership programs.
The goal is to support more STEM-H partnerships that fuel opportunities to redefine teaching and service in ways that advance innovation and workforce development. EPIIC (Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity) is specifically designed to serve smaller or underrepresented colleges that historically have had limited ability to absorb the time-consuming work of building new collaborations from scratch.
The Connect Four cohort — which includes Albion College (Albion, Michigan), Canisius University (Buffalo, New York) and Northwest Arkansas Community College (Bentonville, Arkansas) — will work to develop programs tailored to each of their region’s needs while also sharing insights, learning from expert consultants and collaborating on a universal toolkit that can help guide other small institutions.
“We’re really creating a new roadmap that will benefit students at Roanoke College and beyond,” said Shannon Anderson, a professor of public health and Roanoke College’s senior director of strategic health. Anderson will serve as EPIIC liaison for the campus.
“Our toolkit will be a free resource that can be adapted to the needs of different departments and institutions,” she said. “By demystifying the process, we can make this type of work more accessible to faculty and staff who have phenomenal ideas but need support to bring them to life.”
Roanoke College’s plan includes launching an EPIIC Fellows program that will equip more people on campus to develop community partnerships. Fellows will be supported with a stipend, training and seed money to facilitate their proposals. They also will be able to hire a student assistant, adding a unique opportunity for hands-on learning and mentorship to the initiative. The EPIIC Fellows program will be launched later this year.
Roanoke College was one of only three schools in Virginia and 48 nationwide awarded EPIIC funding this year. EPIIC is a program of the U.S. National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency that works to support science and engineering across all 50 states and U.S. territories.
-The Salem Times-Register
