Campus Life

UWF Innovation Institute hosts grand opening

Today, UWF Innovation Institute is hosting a grand opening ceremony to display the Institute’s collaborative academic problem solving and community partnerships. The grand opening will take place at 4 p.m. with a ribbon cutting and open house at Innovation Institute, located at 321 N. Devilliers St. Suite 308 in downtown Pensacola.

Established in 2013, Innovation Institute serves as a hub to identify and develop educational projects that will have a substantial impact on the regional economy and enable the University and its partners to meet the growing demand of Florida’s workforce challenges.

Boasting a model of an interdisciplinary “educational incubator,” Innovation Institute outputs transformational new ways of doing business and reaching students by using visionary next steps. These steps help institutions solve immense problems and survive in a rapidly changing higher education landscape by using cost-effective, scalable solutions.

“I am extremely proud of the Institute’s accomplishments to date, the impact we are already making and the opportunities that are ahead of us to reimagine the future with our visionary staff, partners and fellow innovators in our community and across the state,” said Dr. Pam Northrup, executive director of UWF Innovation Institute.

Innovation Institute is spearheading numerous local, regional and state initiatives, including Complete Florida, a legislatively funded online program for adults who have earned some college credit but stopped out before earning a degree. This year, the Institute launched the UWF Center for Cybersecurity, providing a hub for research on cybersecurity as well as opportunities for students to move into high-demand career fields through collaborative partnerships. The Institute also oversees various programs to provide students with enhanced immersive STEM and competency-based education.

For more information, visit uwf.edu/innovation.