CONVERGING RESEARCH. ACCELERATING RESULTS.
The Brief
NSF lives on the frontier of science and engineering. Loma has introduced and supports its revolutionary Convergence Accelerator, an exciting venture of 100+ teams speeding ‘Big Ideas’ towards national-scale products, solutions, and results that directly impact people’s everyday lives today and tomorrow.
The Client
National Science Foundation
The Challenge
The Convergence Accelerator is an NSF first. Created to enable long-lasting societal impact, it builds upon basic research and discovery to deliver tangible solutions quickly.
The Accelerator places teams together in cohorts, synergizing their work through facilitated collaboration. This requires attracting and aligning a vast national talent pool to advance critical and emerging technologies. Our job was to create broad awareness while establishing a scalable, cost-effective communications model for innovators, researchers and partners.
The Approach
Our messaging emphasized the program’s unique approach and amazing possibilities to key audiences that include potential participants, diverse practitioners and cross-cutting partnerships.
Core pillars of our approach featured an interactive virtual event that introduced the Convergence Accelerator to audiences in 30 nations; a Team Science video series that provides curriculum instruction to program participants; and a range of ongoing ‘storytelling’ media that celebrates the program’s key successes and expanding vision.
Measurable Results
From launch in 2019 with 43 teams working on two Tracks in one Cohort, the Convergence Accelerator has grown dramatically. Hailed as a breakthrough in facilitated collaboration, its achievements helped inspire the 2022 launch of NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP), NSF’s first new directorate in more than 3 decades.
Tracks
Teams
Cohorts
The Takeaway
From the playing field to the physics lab, “teamwork” is critical for success. In this case, teams are drawn from academia, industry, government, nonprofit, and other communities of practice—all areas of Loma expertise gained through 20+ years of experience.
We’re all about speeding success.
“We were hoping for a home run. Loma hit a grand slam.”
-NSF Convergence Accelerator