Northwestern Buffett's collaborative idea incubation model changes the way that research is done. It encourages researchers to take risks, reach across barriers and catalyze new ideas. Here, faculty participants share their experiences at an Idea Dialogue, an Idea Incubation Workshop, or in an ongoing capacity as a Buffett Working Group.
Learn from three Northwestern faculty who participated in our approach. Jennifer Dunn, Kimberly Suiseeya, and Patty Loew are members of our inaugural working group, Disproportionate Impacts of Environmental Challenges.
My experience in the Idea Incubation Program was formative because, although my work is very interdisciplinary in the engineering space, I had yet to collaborate meaningfully with many of the humanities and social science disciplines.”
One of the most remarkable things about the IIW weekend was the learning that happened in the room. We came together, mostly never having met or worked together, and we left with different perspectives and understandings of the challenges we are each working to address. I was thrilled that we were selected, as were the other team members, but we also knew that if we hadn’t won, each of us had formed new relationships that could lead to improved interdisciplinary work.”
We are excited to work with amazing scholars who are committed to working with Indigenous communities that face imminent environmental challenges like climate change. Some of these communities have strong traditional ecological knowledge and have been adapting to intense pressures for hundreds of years. They may have as much to share with us as we will share with them.”