Expand N.C. PSI Partnerships and Strengthen External Collaborations

In addition to NC State’s engaged and continually growing community, there are numerous stakeholders and prospective partners outside the university that are central to N.C. PSI’s origination, design and ultimate success.

N.C. PSI’s base of industry partners in particular offers a strong foundation for continued growth. While some partnerships are inextricably linked to N.C. PSI’s physical presence, like those industry partners co-located at the Plant Sciences Building, there are many others that transcend physical co-location and bring with them significant opportunity for statewide and global impact in research, commercialization, workforce development and more. For NC State, this can mean providing students with greater access to internship and workforce opportunities with some of the world’s leading institutions and private-sector companies similarly focused on innovation in plant sciences, as well as international programs that carry ancillary benefits for the university. It can mean connecting faculty with commercialization opportunities for monetizing the groundbreaking discovery and viable concepts under development among N.C. PSI research teams. And it can mean driving economic activity ranging from leveraging NC State’s expansive research capabilities toward private sector investments and discovery to providing mentorship, incubation, acceleration and other technology transfer support services that help build companies and deliver a longterm exponential impact on the university and state. Private companies are similarly served by such mission-aligned partnerships, where N.C. PSI offers access to an unprecedented aggregation of talent, ideas and research capabilities through a diverse community of preeminent researchers from across the region and world.

We recognize, though, that such partners operate in a for-profit environment with an obligation to deliver value and returns. In some cases, these missions may align with ours, but in others they may diverge. Above all, we must partner diligently and strategically on efforts that best serve our mission.

Other institutions in the region and beyond represent areas of opportunity for partnership by drawing in diverse stakeholders and partners where our mutual capabilities in plant sciences can elevate one another in holistic, distinct ways that fill knowledge gaps and expand opportunities. We will aggressively pursue collaborations with other institutions, particularly those that can enhance our region’s standing as a hub for innovation in plant sciences. In these instances, partnerships with institutions like N.C. A&T State University represent significant opportunities to build upon our historic collaboration with our fellow land-grant university, which offers synergistic expertise to that of NC State and operates as the largest historically Black university in the U.S. Such partnerships offer great potential for broadening collaborative research in our region, integrating joint expertise into grant proposals, expanding our collective capacity for large-scale research opportunities and exposing faculty and students to new topics and coursework beyond the footprint where they currently work or learn.

GOAL 2.3.1: SCALE AND GROW N.C. PSI’S EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS

KEY INITIATIVES

Key Initiative 1: Design and resource an organizational function for managing and growing industry partners

Key Initiative 2: Explore satellite or physical locations adjacent to the Plant Sciences Building to co-locate N.C. PSI and industry partners

Key Initiative 3: Expand formal partnerships with other higher education institutions and project-based research teams

Key Initiative 4: Establish and expand master research agreements (MRAs) with external collaborators

GOAL 2.3.2: DIVERSIFY OUR RESEARCH TALENT PIPELINE

KEY INITIATIVES

Key Initiative 1: Identify and formalize research partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the region

Key Initiative 2: Develop an early scholars summer program to recruit and expose underrepresented undergraduates and early-stage graduate students to interdisciplinary plant-based research

GOAL 2.3.3: INCREASE INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION AND PROGRAMMING

KEY INITIATIVES

Key Initiative 1: Formalize and expand partnerships between N.C. PSI and international universities

Key Initiative 2: Develop a pathway for affiliating visiting scholars with NC State through N.C. PSI

Key Initiative 3: Develop strategic communications that highlight people, programs and partnerships with national and global impacts

WOLFPACK 2030 ALIGNMENT

• Goal 1: Empower students for a lifetime of success and impact.

• Goal 2: Ensure preeminence in research, scholarship, innovation and collaboration.

• Goal 3: Expand and advance our engagement with and service to North Carolina and beyond, defining the standard for a 21st-century land-grant university.

• Goal 4: Champion a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging and well-being in all we do.

• Goal 6: Lead in developing innovative partnerships, entrepreneurial thinking and applied problem-solving.

• Goal 7: Elevate the national and global reputation and visibility of NC State.

FOCUS AREA