Connecting Communities and Universities to Move Local Projects Forward

The Research Council helps municipalities and community organizations connect with the people, tools, and research capacity available across regional universities. Through partnerships with faculty, staff, and students, we help communities explore ideas, better understand local challenges, and develop practical solutions grounded in real-world conditions.

At its core, the Research Council is about applied learning and community problem-solving. It creates opportunities for communities to access research support they may not otherwise have, while giving university partners meaningful, place-based experiences connected to real municipal needs.

HOW IT WORKS

The Research Council is jointly managed by CONNECT (Congress of Neighboring Communities) and CoHub of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Together, we help connect municipal needs with university expertise through a collaborative three-step process.

Listen and Identify

We work directly with local leaders to understand community goals, challenges, and opportunities. From there, projects are scoped into one of three categories:

Tasks: Focused, short-term needs with practical deliverables.

Projects: Semester-long collaborations that may result in plans, reports, designs, or recommendations.

Investigations: Larger, multi-community research efforts that help inform regional understanding and decision-making.

Match Communities With University Partners

Once a project is identified, the Research Council works to connect communities with the university partners, expertise, and resources best suited to support the work. Depending on the project, that may involve a faculty-led capstone course, a student research team, graduate assistants, subject matter experts, or technical support such as mapping, data analysis, surveys, and design work. In some cases, projects may also bring together collaborators across disciplines or institutions to address more complex community challenges. Our role is to help create partnerships that are practical, mutually beneficial, and grounded in the real needs and priorities of the communities involved.

Support the Partnership

CONNECT and CoHub stay involved throughout the process. We help coordinate communication, support project logistics, identify additional resources, and help communities explore next steps after recommendations are complete.

Our goal is to help communities build momentum toward implementation.

To learn more about this initiative, email Sarah Evi at sarah@swpahub.org.

RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORTS