EAGER: The Impact of Innovation Ecosystem Acceleration Training on Ecosystem Mapping, Stakeholder Engagement, and Regional Innovation Engine Choice

Award ID: 2342005

Recent years have seen the establishment of a significant number of new Federal programs aimed at harnessing the potential of regional innovation ecosystems, including the NSF TIP Regional Innovation Engines (RIE) program. Relative to traditional research grants, place-based interventions are not directed toward a specific research project but rather aim to reshape interactions among researchers and other stakeholders within a given geographic location. The aim of an ecosystem Engine intervention is wire or re-wire an innovation ecosystem in order to enhance innovative productivity and impact. The choice, design elements, and ultimate performance of an innovation ecosystem is hypothesized to be a function of (a) the specific initial conditions of a given ecosystem, (b) the degree of engagement and commitment by specific stakeholders within that ecosystem and (c) potential interactions between initial conditions and stakeholder engagement. The research to be done in this project will take advantage of an innovation ecosystem training program in order to undertake an empirical analysis of these hypotheses. Despite significant academic and policy interest in the role of such federal interventions, there is to date no systematic empirical study of the process by which regional innovation stakeholders undertake innovation ecosystem analyses, engage innovation ecosystem stakeholders, or choose innovation ecosystem interventions. As such, the project has the potential to contribute to our theoretical understanding and policy analyses regarding the design of place-based innovation policy interventions. The research will take advantage of an opportunity to conduct training on innovation ecosystems as part of the NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program for the program's Development Awardees. This training effort will provide the investigators the ability to (a) gather systematic and structured data about the innovation ecosystem assessments of the as-is ecosystem state undertaken by NSF RIE awardees, (b) document the participation (and level of engagement and commitment by different potential ecosystem stakeholders (e.g., universities, start-ups, local government, research laboratories, corporates, etc.), and (c) observe the proposed intervention that these Development Awardees ultimately submit as their future NSF Engines grant application. The ability to capture real-time data of the analysis and degree of engagement by more than 40 regional Type 1 awardees will allow for a direct evaluation of key hypotheses noted above, and provide insight into the role of ecosystem and stakeholder characteristics in shaping regional strategic Engine choice and performance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Sarah Goforth