ARA Awards University $1.8 Million to Expand Economic Development Efforts

The Arkansas Research Alliance, or ARA, made an award of $1.8 million to the University of Arkansas to ramp up economic development efforts. The award comes via a larger $8 million award to the alliance from the National Science Foundation's E-CORE program to grow the state's research capacity, accelerate commercialization of research and increase the number of career pathways in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  

The E-CORE program is designed to increase research capacity through connecting researchers and developing additional infrastructure in less competitive jurisdictions. David Hinton, associate vice chancellor for Research & Innovation and executive director for University of Arkansas Technology Ventures, will serve as the principal investigator on the subaward to support the economic development component of E-CORE.  

"This funding represents a transformative moment for Arkansas," Hinton said. "By aligning our research capacity with commercialization pathways and industry partnerships, this program strengthens the state's ability to turn research into impact. It's not just about developing innovations in the lab, it's also about building a statewide engine for technology transfer, research commercialization, economic development, and opportunity creation for every Arkansan." 

Tiffany Henry, representing ACC Capital Foundation, a non-profit community-development financial institution, will join Hinton in leading the economic core of the subaward. This project is also in collaboration with Phil Shellhammer, executive director with the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Catherine Corley, a business and innovation consultant with the University of Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center.

Under Hinton's guidance, the University of Arkansas will focus on three areas: 

• "Needs" finding workshops 

• Expanded/continued commercialization retreats 

• Advocating for policy changes that support use-inspired research and small business formation 

"Needs" findings workshops will be designed to address the specific needs of Arkansas industry in relation to research activity. Improving and deepening the conversation between industry and the research community will help ensure more research is "use inspired," meaning the practical applications are considered from the start and help shape the direction of proposed work. These workshops will also be an opportunity to address workforce development needs. In addition, faculty expertise will be marketed to industry partners, enhancing the reputation of the university and researchers. 

In years past, the University of Arkansas Office for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Technology Ventures have co-hosted an annual commercialization workshop to walk researchers and entrepreneurs through the ins and outs of turning groundbreaking research into products and services that can be commercialized by interested businesses.  

These popular workshops cover areas like understanding and patenting intellectual property, starting a company, applying for federal grants that support small business development, and forging connections between entrepreneurs, researchers and industry partners. This component of the award will ensure that these valuable workshops are both expanded and funded for at least another four years. 

The third component of the award will be to advocate for and facilitate policy changes that stimulate more use-inspired research and small business formation. An example of this is expanding the metrics considered as part of the teaching, research, and service criteria for faculty tenure to include things like patent filings, commercialization and entrepreneurial endeavors. The U of A Board of Trustees has already agreed to this in substance, passing a resolution in 2020 in support of such changes, but the implementation has been left to individual institutions in the UA System. The goal of this is to assist institutions, both in the UA System and outside of it, in developing and implementing policies that incentivize and reduce impediments to commercialization of research. 

The final benefit of this E-CORE program is that it unlocks opportunities for researchers on campus and in the state to apply for additional funding from the National Science Foundation. As long as a state institution has a funded or pending E-CORE grant, faculty members in Arkansas are eligible to apply for EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence (E-RISE) grants.  

"The EPSCoR program is a tremendous benefit to Arkansas," said Margaret Sova McCabe, vice chancellor for research and innovation. "I’m gratefulproud that organizations like ARA and people like David Hinton are taking advantage of this opportunity program to help Arkansas build its research competitiveness nationally and support economic vitality here."