This is a collaborative project across the following institutions: The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). TCNJ and UWEC are teaching-focused, research-active primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) with strong traditions of faculty governance. As EPIIC partners, they will leverage their common strengths to increase capacity for partnerships in alignment with their institutional strategic plans. They will learn from their institutional differences to enhance their institutions’ capacity to engage effectively in their regional innovation ecosystems. This cohort represents the segment of PUI/ERIs (emerging research institutions) that have a solid baseline of research support for faculty in terms of grants offices and relevant policies and procedures; research-active faculty who generally draw on undergraduates for their primary lab support; strategic plans that encourage broad-based engagement with the broader community and external partners; and a passion for creating “real-life” opportunities through external partnerships that will strengthen student preparation for futures in the workforce or success in graduate/doctoral studies as well as strengthen our curricular offerings. The goal of the proposed project is to mitigate institutional inward-facing and outward-facing cultural issues that prevent each of these institutions from reaching their full potential in forming and sustaining external partnerships. To accomplish this goal, during the grant period, TCNJ will create an advisory council of leaders with regular meetings and expected outcomes. TCNJ will inventory existing partnerships and develop a seamless approach to partner with industry at various levels of engagement. A key component of this work will be leveraging Handshake as a means of connecting students with industry opportunities and tracking corporate partnerships. This project will enable TCNJ and UWEC to leverage underutilized potential and improve institutional capacity and positioning for future partnership development; increase student engagement in use-inspired projects and in answering research and technology questions, leading to enhanced student success; encourage research-inactive faculty to engage again with research and scholarship and prevent research-active faculty from becoming inactive; increase activity in technology/economic development; and model how research-active PUIs can meaningfully engage in regional innovation ecosystems. 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.