In a big bet on science, the U.S. just created 10 new ‘innovation engines’

Molly Hemstreet’s career as an English teacher, community organizer, and entrepreneur in rural western North Carolina doesn’t fit the typical profile of a grantee of the National Science Foundation (NSF). But her vision for reviving North Carolina’s struggling textile industry by using more recycled materials, green manufacturing practices, and a well-trained workforce was tailor-made for a new NSF program designed to fuel economic prosperity in neglected communities across the United States. Today, NSF announced that Hemstreet’s project is one of the first 10 it is funding under an ambitious and unprecedented program called Regional Innovation Engines (RIEs). If all goes according to plan, each engine will receive up to $160 million over 10 years—by far the largest sum NSF has ever invested in an individual research project, and four to five times that awarded to a typical NSF science and technology center. The engines, says NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, are part of the agency’s “commitment to create opportunity everywhere and enable innovation anywhere.” And Hemstreet says her project, called the North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine, was a good match for NSF’s desire to find “people who can take a research innovation out of the lab … and translate it into jobs and wealth that can flow back into our communities.” Overall, the 10 engines awarded today —selected from 188 proposals—involve le...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research