Accelerating progress towards common strategic goals
There is considerable commonality among institutional strategic goals, particularly for research-intensive organizations and universities, and actions taken by organizations to increase their capacity to participate in HIBAR projects directly contribute to these common institutional priorities.
HIBAR projects enable university-based researchers and non-academic researchers and practitioners to work together on projects that strengthening commitment to research excellence and also greatly accelerate progress toward solving society’s critical problems, since co-produced research outcomes are more likely to be translated to benefit society in the long term.
Students seek an educational experience that prepares them for successful and meaningful careers. Through participation in HIBAR projects, students develop strong communication, team building, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. These valuable experiential opportunities prepare students for success in their future careers, no matter the path they choose.
The integrative cross-sectoral decision-making within a HIBAR project accelerates knowledge creation and generates better and faster solutions toward society’s critical problems. This strengthens a university’s relationships with non-academic organizations, and increases future opportunities to identify and contribute to solving societal challenges.
HIBAR projects involve deep partnerships with individuals in external organizations, often in locally-based industries, governments, non-profits, and communities. This inclusion helps build long-lasting relationships with people and organizations holding diverse knowledge and perspectives, and increases future community-engaged activities and solutions.
HIBAR projects offer experiential opportunities that lead to many different career paths. This creates a positive feedback loop: as more HIBAR-experienced researchers enter the workforce, they can help co-create and co-lead more university HIBAR collaborations that in turn create new HIBAR research opportunities for another generation of faculty and students.
By empowering faculty and students to work on societally-impactful projects, institutions can foster a sense of belonging among those who may be deterred by the historically inward-looking academic culture. Greater access to opportunities to participate in HIBAR projects will, over time, help to change the academic culture toward more societally-engaged research.