University of Washington
Read the proposal that we shared with the University of Washington, one of the world’s leading public universities, to execute Bonds of Union’s vision for the future of teaching, learning, and research in higher education.
We aim to build a national R&D infrastructure across all regions of the U.S. to solve the challenges that threaten the continued health and prosperity of our democratic republic.
Bonds of Union aims to serve as the innovation engine to confront persistent challenges facing high-need communities in the U.S. We develop, incubate, and implement bold ideas that yield meaningful social benefit in vulnerable communities and disadvantaged regions across the country.
Bonds of Union will call upon our most knowledgeable and technically skilled generation to commit their intellectual energies to this cause. Through this process, Bonds of Union hopes to strengthen “the mystic cords of memory” that connect us all to a larger, inherited purpose and renew our sense of civic activism.
Use the map below to explore the breakdown of our nine different regions, explore our regional pilot in the Ohio Valley, and learn about our engagement with three major universities across three different regions.
Southwest region
The BoU | Northwest office is located on the campus of North Dakota University.
To carry out this vision, Bonds of Union leverages higher education institutions as an important part of our R&D efforts. We work with universities to realize a new vision of teaching, learning, and research that reorients higher education toward the practical act of solving complex problems that matter to society. What makes this model uniquely powerful is how it overcomes the traditional challenges of interdisciplinary research, provides a framework for researchers to consider the problems of the vulnerable as a part of their research efforts, and fast-tracks the teaching model to the needs of the twenty-first century economy.
Here is how it works:
To begin, BoU identifies a narrow, well-defined challenge that it will work to solve for a period of three to five years. We focus specifically on challenges that are unlikely to be solved by other institutional players in the field.
For each challenge that BoU sets out to address, we launch a national campaign that engages a new generation and asks them to use their intellectual energies to solve these problems in regions across the country. Teams are composed of leaders from for-profit, nonprofit, and government entities who dedicate their expertise, knowledge, and know-how to support specific projects.
Our teams work in partnership with higher education institutions in each of our nine regions. Our university partners host our diverse, cross-sector team, agree to a long-term partnership agreement, and provide additional backbone support for our efforts across the region.
Faculty from partnering universities and from across the country collaborate with our team throughout the duration of an innovation’s R&D life cycle. Students from these partnering higher education institutions also participate alongside BoU’s expert, cross-sector teams as a core component of their academic work.
Read the proposal that we shared with the University of Washington, one of the world’s leading public universities, to execute Bonds of Union’s vision for the future of teaching, learning, and research in higher education.
Learn about how we are leveraging our vision to support ASU, a leader in higher education innovation, as it implements a pioneering model for teaching and learning and empowers students and faculty to solve complex, interdisciplinary challenges.
Learn about our collaboration with the University of Cincinnati in Ascend, our initial pilot initiative and how we leveraged our broader vision for the future of teaching, learning, and research in higher education.
Do you want to get involved, share an idea, or just learn more about our efforts? We want to hear from you!
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Approach
Process
R&D Engine
Ascend Initiative
Regional Efforts
Ohio valley Pilot
Higher Education
Arizona State University
University of Cincinnati
University of Washington
Insights