The Research Council starts by listening. We work with municipalities and community organizations to understand their goals, challenges, and opportunities. From there, we connect each project with the university partners, faculty, students, and expertise best suited to support the work.

Every partnership looks a little different. It might involve a semester-long capstone course, a student research team, technical expertise, or collaboration across multiple disciplines. Throughout the process, CONNECT and CoHub help coordinate the partnership, provide ongoing support, and connect communities to additional resources that can help turn ideas into action.

Our goal is simple: create meaningful partnerships that benefit both communities and universities while helping move real projects forward.

Develop Practical Solutions

Create actionable plans, designs, recommendations, and tools tailored to local priorities and conditions.

Strengthen Local Capacity

Support communications, fundraising, engagement, and other strategic efforts that help projects move forward.

The Research Council helps university faculty, staff, and students connect their teaching, research, and service to real community needs. By matching academic expertise with local projects, we create meaningful applied learning opportunities, strengthen partnerships with communities, and prepare students for careers in public service and community development while demonstrating the public value of higher education through tangible community impact.