Collaboration between institutions provides more resources for students. Kent State University's participation in the Northeast Ohio Public University Research Alliance (NEO-PURA) is creating space and time for students to innovate across Northeast Ohio.
Crain’s Cleveland Business (subscription required) and Ideastream recently featured Kent State for its partnership with other Northeast Ohio.
Kent State, Cleveland State University, Northeast Ohio Medical University, the University of Akron and Youngstown State University all partner alongside one another in NEO-PURA to help grow research in the Northeast Ohio region.
“There's a lot to be gained from a much more collaborative approach, in which we can share challenges,” Douglas Delahanty, vice president for Research and Sponsored Programs told Crain’s.
This partnership will enable the schools to raise awareness of different resources in the region and help them identify areas for collaboration. An example of this collaboration is the Innovation Day NEO-PURA held March 24 in Kent State’s Design Innovation Hub. This event was a space where students from the five universities could present their research and hear from industry professionals.
“It is just truly amazing to see the joy with which the students are discussing their innovations, the joy with which they're interacting with industry, interacting with neighboring institutions,” Delahanty told Ideastream.
The hope of this partnership is to give students and faculty the space and resources to develop their innovations. Along with responding to the needs of faculty and students, this partnership is also giving the five universities a two-way conversation with industries about how they can help fill their needs in the workforce with students.
“The benefit to students simply is acknowledging all the work they're doing, providing more resources and shared collaborative resources between institutions where we can leverage different strengths, different equipment and other types of things to be mutually supportive,” Delahanty told Ideastream.
Listen to the full interview on Ideastream.
READ MORE AT CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS. (subscription required)
WRITTEN BY: TANNER POE, FLASH COMMUNICATIONS