We partner to advance the public good
Our future is tied to and interconnected with our local, state, national, and international partners. We will create and sustain partnerships that allow our research to have impact locally and globally, our education to prepare students for civic engagement and impact, and our service to create solutions for a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient world.
Fearlessly Forward Initiatives
Discovery District
Since its founding in 2004, The University of Maryland’s research park has dramatically grown in size and scope. The Discovery District today features many private and governmental organizations with thousands of employees working in more than 2 million square feet of office space.
Discovery District
The Discovery District is fostering research and industry partnerships, supporting small businesses, and nurturing the growth of next-generation technology ventures. It encompasses cutting-edge startups, longstanding firms, co-working space, a public charter school, stylish eateries, a top-flight hotel, easy connections via the College Park Metro Station, and much more.
The Discovery District is also the headquarters for the Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the DOD APEX Accelerator, and the Mid-Atlantic Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC).
In addition, a transformative new mixed-use development named Aviation Landing will enable the research park to attract more ventures, startups, and small businesses to the community. This 1.3 million-square-foot project will include housing units, outdoor space, and retail and commercial research and innovation facilities.
Welcoming Students from Prince George's and Baltimore
The university is accelerating efforts to support students in Prince George’s County and Baltimore high schools seeking admission to The University of Maryland.
Welcoming Students from Prince George's and Baltimore
Enrollment Management continues to make strides in increasing access and strengthening its pipeline from Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. These efforts include expanding staff to continue the critical work in this area, enhancing the Maryland Ascent Program (MAP) and increasing contact and communication with admitted students from these areas
Long-term strategic partnerships with Prince George’s County Public Schools and the College of Education’s Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement include, among other resources:
The President’s Virtual High School Course: Calculus in PGCPS
The Learning Recovery Networked Improvement Community Initiative tackles problems of practice related to mathematics achievement, social and emotional learning, and learning recovery
The EdD in School System Leadership with cohorts of PGCPS principals, teacher leaders, and administrators studying equity, continuous improvement, and leadership in an innovative, job-embedded doctoral program
Center for Community Engagement
Animated by our excellence in community-engaged scholarship and learning, and responding to faculty, student, staff and community member voices who advocated for greater support and coordination of this mission-critical work, the University of Maryland will create a new Center for Community Engagement in the Division of Academic Affairs.
Center for Community Engagement
The Center will ensure that community engagement is woven into the very fabric, values, and identity of the institution. The new Center will coordinate with current units in the Division of Academic Affairs, Division of Student Affairs, Division of Administration, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Teaching & Learning Transformation Center, and other units across campus to support existing activities as well as cultivate new opportunities for community-engaged scholarship, instruction, and service aligned with our mission as a public, land-grant, research-intensive university.
Functionally, the Center will provide strategic vision and leadership for UMD community engagement; develop and support partnerships locally and globally; offer training and development opportunities on community engagement best practices for faculty, staff, and students; integrate community engagement into reward and recognition systems; and support logistics and collaboration across units and divisions.
MPower Professorship Program
The MPower Professorship Program, a collaboration between The University of Maryland and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), is a named professorship that fosters collaborations between faculty at the two institutions working together on the nation’s most pressing issues.
MPower Professorship Program
The MPower Professorship award includes funding to support professors’ salaries or supplemental research activities and is part of the MPowering the State initiative, which leverages the unique strengths of both institutions.
The inaugural cohort of researchers was selected in November 2021 and new cohorts are announced yearly. Over $1 Million MPower funds have been disbursed. Faculty receiving the award have, so far, represented the fields of arts and humanities, behavioral and social sciences, computer science, dentistry, engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health.
Strategic Commitment Goals
Goal 1
Expand our impact through strategic research partnerships with local, state, national, and global stakeholders.
Goal 1
Expand our impact through strategic research partnerships with local, state, national, and global stakeholders.
Objectives
- Create more flexible structures for collaborative, multidisciplinary research, and creative activities that are responsive to grand challenges and state priorities.
- Accelerate collaboration within the national capital region to ensure our scholarship has an immediate and meaningful impact on policy and practice.
- Realize the possibilities of “MPowering the State” in partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore to strengthen and serve the state of Maryland through collaborative and transformative research and instruction.
Goal 2
Catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship for inclusive economic development.
Goal 2
Catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship for inclusive economic development.
Objectives
- Improve the vitality of the state of Maryland by growing and supporting the next generation of diverse innovators, creators, entrepreneurs, artists, and small businesses.
- Facilitate the transfer of technology and commercialization of our greatest discoveries.
- Coordinate and grow our innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus and in the Discovery District.
Goal 3
Enhance the economy, educational outcomes, social justice, quality of life, and civic engagement of our neighbors and neighborhoods through relationship-building and ongoing commitment to partnerships.
Goal 3
Enhance the economy, educational outcomes, social justice, quality of life, and civic engagement of our neighbors and neighborhoods through relationship-building and ongoing commitment to partnerships.
Objectives
- Ensure our university is an engaged and responsive partner with the city of College Park, Prince George’s County, and the state of Maryland as together we seek to improve the quality of life and full participation of our citizenry.
- Grow and strengthen our partnerships to enhance the PK-20 educational ecosystem for the state.
- Create opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to become involved in state and local civic engagement.