UIC is making a social impact on the UIC community and the world!
UIC faculty and students research many of the most challenging social problems of our time: urban violence, chronic poverty, poor health outcomes and educational disadvantages in underserved communities, environmental degradation and sustainability. Our faculty and students represent the broad diversity of both Chicago, our country, and the world. We are educating future leaders to solve these large, complex social and environmental problems with hopes of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.
A substantial portion of UIC’s research funding is directed at solving these problems. Over $80 million of UIC’s research dollars come from UIC’s colleges of Public Health, Education, Social Work, Nursing, Applied Health Sciences, Urban Planning and Public Affairs and many social science departments in LAS. Our College of Business students are increasingly engaged in financial investment and organizational management for social impact.
UIC has a successful history of nurturing high social impact discoveries: Cure Violence Global and Collaboration for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) are two highly successful examples of not for profits that grew out of UIC research. Currently, the Office of Technology Management (OTM) is licensing several highly successful evidence-informed and evidence-based research programs—Diabetes Empowerment Education Program (DEEP) and Fit & Strong®! (an osteoarthritis fitness program).
OTM believes there is much untapped potential in UIC’s social impact research and looks forward to maximizing the outreach for these programs.
Sustainable Development Goal #3: Good Health and Well-being Heading link
Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education Heading link
OTM Mission & Social Impact Initiatives Heading link
To optimize the value of this important research for the public good, we need a more robust ecosystem to educate and engage the UIC campus community.
Our goal is to connect UIC researchers and students with the local, Chicago-based social innovation community—to strengthen collaborations and partnerships for solving the pressing issues of our time.
We hope to accomplish this by providing support and infrastructure for faculty and students to create, incubate and develop solutions to the difficult social and environmental issues facing the world.