Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research

The Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research is dedicated to advancing our understanding of how innovation, particularly technology innovation or innovations that are touched by technology, can be fostered, translated, and applied to do good in the world. The Center will promote innovation in solving complex societal challenges through a transdisciplinary approach that spans social sciences, natural sciences, and technology for the public good. Through its research, it will enhance our understanding of how innovation can be systematically fostered and applied to future challenges. The Auster Center will support and fund Tufts faculty, students, and staff to explore novel ways to solve big problems and achieve impact through applied innovation.

The Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research focuses on four objectives:

1. Initiating and executing applied innovation research with a focus on forward-looking research that influences how leaders and organizations might act in the future.
2. Launching a grant program to stimulate transdisciplinary applied innovation research, soliciting proposals from across Tufts University.
3. Supporting undergraduate research opportunities, where undergraduates can receive grant money to join summer innovation research projects with faculty members.
4. Building industry partnerships to provide both sources of innovation challenges as well as partners to co-create new methods for fostering and translating innovation to impact. 

The Auster Center acts as a catalyst at Tufts for researchers to move their work towards commercialization with the New England Regional Hub of the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps. Participating in NSF I-Corps gives researchers entrepreneurial training, support, and funding for customer discovery and their technology – as well as opportunities to build a network of mentors, investors, and local entrepreneurs.