Browse the full HIBAR Strategies Collection.
Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive (“HIBAR”) research projects integrate academic leadership with societal leadership, which creates cognitive diversity to fuel innovation, and they integrate academic purpose with societal purpose, creating new knowledge while applying it to practical challenges. Shared goals and shared decision-making are essential components of these partnerships, because the diverse perspectives that partners bring to the project mean that, together, they make wiser decisions about the direction, participants, and activities within the project – from the start and throughout. The inherent synergy within a HIBAR research project accelerates knowledge creation and generates better solutions, making a distinct and valuable contribution to the research landscape.
The HIBAR Strategies Collection is a growing, curated selection of evidence-based and adaptable strategic actions that individuals and organizations can take to enable more HIBAR research projects. The “actionable” part is key, and we are developing “how-to” guides to accompany each entry in the Collection, to give others a blueprint for how they might get started with a similar activity at their institution.
The HIBAR Research Alliance recognizes that there are many exciting initiatives underway that can encourage and enable more HIBAR projects. We have developed the HIBAR Strategies Collection make this information more readily accessible to all, providing easy access to actionable resources and, in doing so, building connections and networks among and across individuals and organizations.
While these resources will be useful for many, the main target audiences are:
The current entries in the Collection are largely intended for researchers and administrators within academia. While these entries mainly focus on actions taken solely by people within academia, these actions were designed with the needs of external partners in mind and often in deep collaboration with participants in other sectors. As we expand the Collection, we will include proven HIBAR-supportive actions that industry, government, non-profit, and community organizations can take to drive positive change within the university system.
The entries in the Collection are organized into seven Action Themes:
Building Awareness and understanding of the value of HIBAR projects, including downloadable resources and examples of effective ways to connect people and encourage dialogue, such as hosting events
Aligning Incentives to encourage and enable more HIBAR projects, including approaches for making changes in the promotion and tenure system, and award programs to recognize exemplary HIBAR projects
Building Partnerships and ensuring the cross-sectoral co-leadership that help HIBAR projects to succeed, including examples of training programs and events to bring like-minded people together from different sectors
Developing Infrastructure to help institutions support HIBAR projects, including examples of HIBAR research networks, programs aimed at funding HIBAR projects, and institutional systems and processes that reduce barriers
Developing Capabilities within individuals to hone skills needed to launch and manage successful HIBAR projects, including examples of workshops, and mentoring and peer networking opportunities
Assessing Characteristics using frameworks for quantifying and tracking the number and quality of HIBAR projects, including tools for assessing the integrative nature of a HIBAR project, and guidance on how to identify HIBAR projects at the proposal stage
Nurturing Communities that value and enable HIBAR projects, including advice for launching a program to develop a community for faculty and students, and case studies of how other related communities were initiated
Visitors can also explore the full collection, and use the filter menu to select entries that apply to a specific action theme, target audience, or common institutional goal.
As we expand the Collection, in addition to highlighting completed and successful projects, we will also showcase works in progress, as well as activities that did not work as well as intended, with an emphasis on the key lessons learned. This is intended to be a “living” collection that is routinely updated, with a goal of creating an environment that allows for dialog and idea exchange within the Collection.
The HIBAR Research Alliance (HRA) is a volunteer-driven organization of individuals and institutions that recognize that today’s universities can and should engage more effectively with the research and innovation ecosystem as a whole, strengthening academic excellence while also addressing the needs of society.
The mission of the HIBAR Research Alliance (HRA) is to catalyze significant expansion of collaboration between university-based researchers and non-academic researchers and practitioners, working together on projects with shared decision-making, so that those integrative and responsive projects will both discover new knowledge and greatly accelerate progress toward solving society’s critical problems.
The HRA invites individuals, from all areas of the research and innovation ecosystem, to participate in its activities aimed at catalyzing cultural and structural change within universities so they can be more active partners in the larger innovation ecosystem.