You've seen how policy partnerships work. Now let's turn inward—to the academic ecosystem itself.
This issue is for anyone who thinks of "partnership" as always external, who hasn't explored what's possible across departments, colleges, or institutions. It's for researchers at research universities who haven't partnered with community colleges, and for faculty who work in silos when collaboration could amplify impact.
The key insight: some of the richest partnerships are hiding in plain sight, within your own institution or among peer institutions you already know.
You're designing broader impacts that involve student training and pathway development. You write about "preparing the next generation of scientists."
But what does that actually mean? Students come from somewhere. They go somewhere. The pipeline has stages, transitions, hand-offs. What if your broader impacts strengthened those connections rather than treating your program as an isolated intervention?
The academic ecosystem is full of partnership opportunities that get overlooked because they don't fit the "external partner" template. But a strong community college articulation, a cross-departmental mentoring program, or a multi-institutional research experience can be as impactful as any museum collaboration—and often more sustainable.
Intra-academic partnerships span several dimensions:
Cross-departmental (within your institution). Different departments, colleges, or units working together. Engineering with business. Sciences with education. Research faculty with student services.
Cross-institutional (different institutions). University partnerships, 4-year to 2-year pathways, research collaborations across institutional types.
Articulation and transfer. Formal agreements that recognize learning, credit transfer, pathway agreements that smooth transitions between institutions.
Shared resources. Core facilities, computing infrastructure, field stations, research equipment that multiple partners use.
The mistake faculty make: treating intra-academic partnership as "just collaboration" rather than recognizing it as a legitimate and powerful form of broader impact.
