This collaboration of two universities that have strong emphases on teaching - Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) and University of Minnesota Duluth, (UMD) – focuses on building our capacity for research projects between university faculty, industry partners, and community stakeholders, while simultaneously developing the regional workforce for these entities. Our campuses have commonalities (i.e., campus leadership transitions, overshadowing by regional R1 institutions, emphasis on undergraduate instruction) that set the stage for our collaborative work. Efforts on both campuses will follow a Collaborate, Advance, Facilitate, and Empower (CAFÉ) model for building research capacity. We will especially focus on developing private sector partnerships and enhancing campus cultures of research activity by faculty and administrative support of those activities. This EPIIC project will support capacity-building efforts at our institutions to grow external partnerships. The broader impact of our streamlined focus and partnerships will result in accelerated recruitment of faculty who seek to develop biotechnology innovation competencies and accelerate recognition as a regional hub for biotechnology research. FDU and UMD will synthesize and share resources as we move the following objectives forward: (1) enhance communication strategies for collaborating with outside entities; (2) develop a sustainable faculty seed grant program; (3) advance meaningful relations with regional industry; (3) facilitate faculty interaction with the private sector; (3) empower faculty to build new partnerships with grant-writing support and targeted seed grant opportunities. Our plan for evaluating the collective ongoing impact of our capacity building activities will support a strong understanding of the efficacy and return on investment, will allow us to refine and amend activities in later years of the project, and will culminate in developing a set of “best practices” relevant to other PUIs seeking to enhance their research support infrastructure and to develop robust cultures of research activity on their campuses. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.