Research Collaborations

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Academic collaboration is an essential component to the future of F&S, and a major theme emphasized in the F&S Strategic Plan. The F&S mission reflects this in the phrase, “and an active partner in research, teaching, and learning.”

"Working with the F&S team was a wonderful
experience. The team welcomed me with open arms
and created an environment in which I was
comfortable with sharing ideas as well as drafting new
ones together. I love the commitment, passion, and
excitement the team has every time we met."
    ~ Chantelle Hicks, College of Media

For feature stories about academic collaborations, visit the F&S INSIDER Magazine site: https://go.fs.illinois.edu/Academic

F&S contributes industrial expertise to research projects, provides data, makes facilities available as living laboratories, offers tours for classes and special events, engages students in experiential learning opportunities, provides grants for research projects, and endorses research initiatives with federal granting agencies.  Additionally, F&S practitioners are available as co-principle investigators, upon request.

F&S invites all faculty, students, staff, and community members to partake in academic collaborations with the organization. This program will strengthen the bridge between F&S and the various academic interests on campus. With guest lecturers, large amounts of data, professional experts, and research collaborators, F&S is excited to enable a supportive learning environment throughout the university. 

Responses to academic collaboration requests will occur within 5 business days. The satisfaction of requests will typically occur within 2-4 weeks, dependent on the nature of the request, or an alternative timeline will be agreed upon for longer term collaborations. To get started, contact F&S Associate Director Morgan White by completing this request form: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/9147937.

F&S is pleased to support research and instructors in several ways:
  • Provide data to researchers F&S continues to provide researchers with a wide range of data to accomplish their research objectives. F&S can provide data related to building and construction, operation and maintenance for campus facility, historical data, energy-related data on the building level and utility-scale, and transportation network information.
  • Contribute industrial expertise to research projects F&S contributes its industrial skills and expertise in terms of resources, locations, equipment, material, and staff time to help researchers build their prototypes and integrate their research ideas on campus premises to serve research and development purposes.
  • Make facilities available as living laboratories F&S provides all physical plant, operational, and essential services for sustaining an environment that fosters the research, teaching, and public engagement activities of the university. F&S facilitates, supports, and encourages researchers and instructors to use university premises as living labs. Researchers and students can implement projects, and F&S can assist with resources, locations, equipment, material, staff time.
  • Offer tours for classes, lectures, and special events F&S staff and experts offer a wide range of tours around campus facilities, such as power plants and recycling centers. F&S also provides speakers about development projects and initiatives across the campus. Furthermore, F&S organizes and oversees special events for education, outreach, and raising awareness.
  • Engage students in experiential learning opportunities F&S fosters its educational mission in the University of Illinois by engaging students in its campus development project as part of their learning process. F&S also provides internships for graduate and undergraduate students to acquire practical experiences and receive direct exposure to ongoing projects and development initiatives across the campus.
  • Provide and support grants for research F&S can provide direct funds for research projects under the supervision of the F&S executive director. F&S also partners with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) to evaluate research proposals in iSEE’s Campus as a Living Lab Research Seed Grant program and support the funded research integration with campus infrastructure. F&S continues to provide research initiatives with support letters to endorse researchers for federal granting agencies such as the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation.
  • F&S staff and experts participate in numerous research projects as co-principle investigators. F&S representatives work with projects PI responsible for the conduct of a research project, including meeting the reporting requirements. F&S can provide details regarding in-kind cost share when needed.