The University of Vermont is excited to announce the inaugural Research, Innovation, Sustainability, and Entrepreneurship (RISE) Summit, taking place June 21-22, 2023. The new RISE Summit will bring together researchers, business leaders, and alumni to spotlight the opportunities and challenges of economic development in Vermont and the surrounding region. The convened leaders will discuss solutions to pressing needs including clean water, sustainable energy, affordable housing, food production, and more, and demonstrate the potential for university-community-business partnerships to succeed in these areas.
Along with speakers (including Senator Patrick Leahy, UVM Health Network CEO and president Sunil “Sunny” Eappen, University of Rochester’s iZone Director Yasmin Mattox, and Davis Studio founding director Teresa Davis), the summit will convene research, policy, and practitioner panels to discuss a variety of related challenges like housing, infrastructure, and talent attraction that must be addressed for economic development to move from select urban pockets to broad regions outside of large coastal cities.
“The RISE Summit and the UVM institutes, researchers, students, and community advocates that it will bring together are fulfilling a broad expansion of the university’s traditional land-grant mission,” said UVM president Suresh Garimella. “While the main focus of this work will be the 14 counties of Vermont, UVM and the new Institute for Rural Partnerships will serve as a model and leader for university-community-business engagement across the country and help revitalize the land-grant spirit so central to higher education.”
The RISE Summit will feature many substantial elements of UVM’s research enterprise that have grown over the past few years, including food and agricultural ecosystems, environmental and ecological solutions, and rural healthcare innovation. It will also highlight the university’s continued commitment to engaging with community and state partners to promote cooperative success.
“Launching the RISE Summit at UVM for Vermont and the entire New England community is essential to helping catalyze our existing resources, from high-end technology development to clinical translation of medical/cancer research, to new energy paradigms being developed here in Vermont in collaboration with local utilities and technology companies,” UVM Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski said. “It has always been important to the university to reach out to the communities of Vermont. The summit and the work that will follow will bring UVM’s support to those community initiatives, early-stage businesses, and vital non-profits in meaningful ways.”
The RISE Summit is partly sponsored by the newly established Institute for Rural Partnerships (IFRP), which was announced last December and will be housed in UVM’s Office of Research. The IFRP was made possible by a $9.3 million award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture with leadership and support from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Other sponsors include UVM’s Office of Research, UVM Innovations, the Vermont EPSCOR Program, the Vermont Technology Council, and a wide range of community and business supporters.
The RISE Summit will take place at UVM’s Davis Center. Students, prospective students, community and business leaders, industry experts, and community members interested in innovation, sustainability, and entrepreneurship are invited to attend. Registration is free and open to the public. Participants can engage with the event in person or virtually via livestream. For more details about the summit and to register, visit uvm.edu/rise.