How can you move University research beyond campus walls?

Case Study / iBridge Network^SM

Who

The iBridge^SM Network is a program of the Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc., a non-profit initiative of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Kauffman Innovation Network is working to bridge the gap between universities, industry, researchers, and entrepreneurs to help advance new discoveries faster.

Problem

Research is becoming a larger part of universities, but finding this research on institution web sites is often a hopeless challenge. Building a solution that makes it easier to find and distribute research results beyond campus walls is a difficult task - every organization has different legal requirements, processes, and formats for storing research. Existing solutions weren't flexible enough to meet these needs and couldn't adapt fast enough to keep up with the rapid pace of research and innovation on the web.

Solution

We first met with the Kauffman Innovation Network and leading research institutions to gain a better understanding of how they currently publicize their research innovations, answer questions, enforce security regulations, and fulfill orders. With a tight deadline, accomplishing the long list of feature requests wasn't possible. We worked with the Network and the schools to prioritize and schedule the work, ensuring that the short-term goals meshed with the long-term vision.

The iBridge^SM Network’s web site, www.iBridgeNetwork.org, launched to great reviews at the 2007 Winter Demo Conference, winning a DEMOGod award. Work didn't stop there – the iBridge web site continues to add innovations and organizations at a quick pace thanks to a flexible system that makes it easy to integrate proprietary research databases with the site. Development on the web site hasn't stopped, even as it grows in the number of postings and Network members - thanks to a flexible architecture and Ruby on Rails, the iBridge web site continues to add cutting-edge features that position it at the forefront of innovation research.

iBridge Homepage

A wide variety of innovations