To address increasingly complex societal challenges, public and private sector leaders must leverage research to make evidence-based decisions. Yet public and private sector practitioners are not always informed of the best research, and university-based scholars often lack the skills or capacity needed to translate their knowledge for them. This project will foster greater use of evidence in the public and private sectors by producing new knowledge on best practices in research translation, training scholars in the effective conduct of research translation, supporting the dissemination of research findings that have the potential to benefit society, building institutional capacity at American University for promoting research translation, and cultivating a culture of research translation at American University and other institutions of higher education. By promoting evidence-based decision making in these ways, the project will advance national health, prosperity, welfare, and security.

The project will include research, training, dissemination, and capacity-building components. The research team will investigate best practices in research translation, create a repository of translation methodologies, and enable knowledge-sharing about effective translation practices among institutions of higher education. The project team will apply this knowledge through the development of training programs in research translation and the pursuit of professional opportunities beyond academia for scholars at American University and other Washington, DC-area institutions. At the same time, the project will provide seed funding to support the translation activities of a select number of high-impact research projects led by American University faculty, on issues including the growth of a diverse and globally-competitive STEM workforce, the development of effective trauma mitigation training for counterterrorism professionals, and the use of machine learning to improve the efficiency of clinical drug trials. A network of senior administrators and faculty will serve as ambassadors for the project, further promoting its institutionalization and sustainability through a series of assemblies and other outreach within and beyond American University.

Partial funding for this project was provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, which supports improvements in STEM teaching and learning for all undergraduate students.

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.