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FINDINGS
Get the 411 on Digital Futures
It's only one of the most important research initiatives at UC, and a big part of Research2030, UC’s newly unveiled plan to become a Top 25 Public Research University within the next 10 years.

Digital Futures is the theme of this year's Research + Innovation Week, and we're taking the opportunity to fill you in. See how UC researchers are leveraging technology to advance research that creates brighter and more equitable futures for all of us. Digital Futures is about advancing imaginative, collaborative and use-inspired research in the areas of Mobility & Exploration, Future Health, Resilience & Recovery and Safety & Security.

Live Action!
R+I Week is all virtual this year but if you think that equates to a week full of boring zoom presentations think again. Some of R+I Week’s events have some pretty high stakes. On Monday, March 29, 15 of UC’s brightest researchers will pitch new research ideas as part of the Collaborative Research Advancement Pilot Grants program. Up to eight ideas will be awarded $25,000 a piece.

On Wednesday at 5 p.m., budding student entrepreneurs compete in the Innovation Quest Elevator Pitch Competition, which is a bit like Shark Tank.
Be a part of the solution
Last year, UC formed the Community Change Collaborative with the goal of becoming a leader in best practices in community-engaged research. C3, as it’s called, will have a home inside Digital Futures when the doors open in 2022.

R+I Week is a perfect space and time for C3 is begin building partnerships with the community. Therefore, the collaborative has organized an event around the topic of Equitable Cities from 2-3:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 30. A series of community members and UC faculty will discuss Greater Cincinnati’s community assets and how they could be better leveraged to create a more equitable Cincinnati. UC, in turn, can begin to understand what the community wants to prioritize when it comes to community-engaged research.
Dive deeper into Digital Futures
Wednesday, March 30 is Digital Futures Day and we’re featuring a lot of our DF researchers in the Flashpoint Series, panel discussions on subjects ranging from artificial intelligence to technology in literacy to advanced air mobility and democracy in our digital age.

Wednesday is also the day to tune in for an update on the Digital Futures research facility being constructed in the Cincinnati Innovation District. Hear from UC’s Vice President for Research Patrick Limbach; Associate Vice President for Research Jennifer Krivickas; Associate Vice President of Planning Design & Construction John Seibert and GBBN Principal Zach Zettler at Introduction to Digital Futures, 1-2:20 p.m. March 31.
Strengthen the integrity of your research
We are nothing without our ethics, so we have a whole Ethics Day planned for Thursday, April 1, with several discussions on pertinent research dilemmas and ethical issues. That includes the popular Hutton Lecture, which centers this year on the complexities of citizen science and human genome research.

Everyday at lunchtime there will be an ethics talk on topics ranging from surveillance to AI bias to whistleblowing.
See how digital projects can write history
Each year, the National Council on Public History selects one book in the area of public history theory, study or practice as Best New Book of the Year. For 2021, it selected “Digital Community Engagement: Partnering Communities with the Academy,” published by University of Cincinnati Press and edited by three UC faculty researchers.

Digital projects empower communities through collaboration, create new primary sources, collapse barriers and spark new dialogue. The book examines nine examples of digital collaborations from constructing a public response to police violence to creating digital stories of homelessness.

During R+I Week, join the editors and one of their collaborators for a virtual discussion 7-8 p.m. Tuesday about community engagement with academia, ethical engagement with digital research and technology and the future of open-access publishing.

The conversation is presented by UC Press, the Office of Research and The Mercantile Library and will be moderated by Crystal Moten, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Questions can be submitted ahead of the event to research@uc.edu.
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