LVAIC’s Lehigh Valley Research Consortium Benefits Faculty and Local LV Community

April 30, 2018, @ 8:00 AM

A panel discussion during a breakout session at a previous State of the Lehigh Valley report release event.

The Lehigh Valley Research Consortium (LVRC) is a program of the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges celebrating its tenth year as a collaborative effort among the faculty of the six LVAIC member institutions, as well as faculty partners from local community colleges. This collaborative effort began in 2007 as an effort to allow for faculty research to connect the LVAIC community to the Lehigh Valley community with three main goals in mind:

1. To improve research and teaching for LVAIC faculty;
2. To facilitate community outreach; and
3. To create a community based information system.

These efforts have manifested in several joint research opportunities ranging from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars in funding for faculty to complete analyses in their areas of expertise. Both non-profit and government sectors have partnered with the LVRC in hopes of finding the joint benefits of this cooperative effort.

Campus and community members gather at the annual State of the Lehigh Valley report release event.

Beyond these efforts, the LVRC completes an annual State of the Lehigh Valley report, which is a combined research analysis on several quality of life factors in the region, each year centering on a different theme. Most recently, the LVRC celebrated its tenth anniversary with the State of Data in the Lehigh Valley as a culminating effort in exploring the value, benefits, and challenges of sharing data across research projects and entities within the Lehigh Valley region. This report was supplemented with the annual report release event, which took place at DeSales University on November 16, 2017. After presenting the findings of the report, members of the LVRC’s Executive Committee led breakout sessions for attendees to explore these topics more thoroughly. The report is available in digital form here.

To learn more about the Lehigh Valley Research Consortium, to get involved, or to explore partnership opportunities, visit the LVRC page of the LVAIC website or contact the LVRC’s Director, Hannah Stewart-Gambino.