CITRIS Collaborations with Social Enterprises

One of CITRIS’s strategies for maximizing the real-world impact of our research is to encourage the formation of new commercial ventures and form partnerships with industry. To address 21st century grand challenges, however, it will also be necessary to partner with non-profits and social enterprises, encourage the formation of new social enterprises, and give our students the skills and experiences needed to be successful social entrepreneurs. Although there is no "one size fits all" approach to these partnerships, they might include the following kinds of relationships:

• The needs of a social enterprise help motivate a CITRIS research project.
• A social enterprise is involved in deployment or scale-up of CITRIS technological or social innovation.
• CITRIS researchers help provide rigorous, independent evaluation of the effectiveness of social enterprise.
• CITRIS students work on projects that address needs of social enterprise as summer internships, capstone projects, independent study, etc. A faculty member serves as the “point person” for the relationship to provide continuity and institutional memory for the student engagement.
• CITRIS researchers and a social enterprise develop joint funding proposals to support collaboration.
• Social enterprises recruit CITRIS students.