On the side of a mobile unit, a QR code feeds into a database so staff at Richard Bland College in rural Virginia can identify students who may not have anyone at home to guide them through college. That guidance can start with basic advice and extend to equipment. “If you need a laptop, we loan them,” says Kimberly Boyd, Vice President of RBC and Chief Research & Innovation Officer. The mobile units also come equipped with virtual reality headsets, a drone (so students can learn more about the college’s drone certification program), and other practical supports. For Richard Bland, it’s a simple premise: meet students where they are, across a wide rural radius.

Boyd is one of the leaders behind a four-institution cohort participating in the NSF EPIIC RREDI project — Raising Rural Economic Development and Innovation — alongside Longwood University (Virginia), Independence Community College (Kansas), and Angelo State University (Texas). They share rural contexts and a common goal. “Our cohort’s name is actually the mission,” says Christopher Kukk, The Wilma Register Sharp & Marc Boyd Sharp Dean of the Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars and political science professor at Longwood. “It’s raising economic development and innovation.”

RREDI is built on a straightforward approach: Collaboration Inside + Collaboration Outside = Economic Development. Through innovation hubs — at different stages across campuses — the team is building curricula tied to workforce needs, growing industry partnerships, testing what works in rural settings, and addressing challenges along the way.

Challenges Rural Institutions Face

·       Reach and transportation: Given the nature of rural areas, it’s harder to reach students. As a solution, Richard Bland leaned on mobile units; similarly, Independence Community College paired its innovation hub work with a mobile fab lab to extend access beyond campus.

·       First-generation navigation: When students lack exposure to college systems, early support matters. Richard Bland created “learner mentors” — master’s level individuals assigned to first-generation students to help them get acclimated.

·       Industry partnerships in thin markets: The market opportunities can be sparse in a lot of these areas — a challenge that David Bixler, Dean of College of Graduate Studies and Research at Angelo State University in rural Texas frames as a geographic reality. “If I were in San Antonio, I wouldn't have to go but a mile from campus, and I’d find a hundred companies that want to work with me,” he says. In rural areas, by contrast, collaboration can be harder to spark — and isolation is often part of the landscape.

·       Internal silos and faculty engagement: Several campuses faced siloed departments and uneven faculty buy-in, making it harder to position innovation as institution-wide work.

·       Capacity, staffing, and post-grant sustainability: Hiring is difficult on rural timelines. Independence Community College struggled to staff a K–12 curriculum coordinator role with limited runway, then redesigned the position to strengthen long-term viability — with an eye toward sustaining it after funding ends.

·       Perception barriers for community colleges: “People see our institution as … it’s not a real school,” says Malinda McGowan, Associate Professor of Sociology at Independence Community College, noting how geography can compound the challenge. Consider a two-year school in California, for instance: “I don't feel like they have the same issues,” she says.

What They Built Anyway

Despite those constraints, the team has made tangible progress since receiving EPIIC funding in 2023.

At Independence Community College, the innovation hub (what they refer to as fab lab) hired a curriculum coordinator to create a K–12 “living document” designed to scale teacher training, so teachers can bring students to the lab or implement activities in their own classrooms after training. The college’s work also connects to a mobile fab lab, — “a trailer, a truck to pull it and a person who is trained to teach the things that are within that mobile fab lab,” says McGowan, so programming can reach rural communities directly, not just those able to travel.

Longwood developed a Faculty Fellows model to broaden engagement across disciplines. “The idea is that faculty from all different disciplines can see the importance of innovation and that innovation in the classroom can have an impact outside in our community, raising rural economic development,” says Kukk.

At Angelo State, Bixler described policy and structural progress — changing a co-op policy for engineering and computer science and breaking down silos — while moving a hub project forward beyond the grant period.

At Richard Bland, Boyd described a path from building internal capacity to expanding external partnerships, alongside practical tools other rural colleges could borrow, like mobile outreach and rural equipment, and a cohort culture of swapping playbooks.

The team leans on one another through steady, intentional connection. “We’ve organized a monthly meeting on Zoom where we have a set agenda,” Kukk says, reinforced by in-person visits and NSF convenings. For Bixler, what makes it work is trust: “We can be more honest with each other… but there’s not a lot of posturing and bravado that has to go on.”

Tips for New Cohorts

·       Be vulnerable early: “Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable in those PI meetings,” Boyd says, noting that it’s important to share challenges, not just wins.

·       Treat meetings as the work: Use PI meetings to learn quickly, ask for help, and trade practical templates instead of starting from scratch.

·       Stop what isn’t working: The team experimented with subcommittees, then pared back when it became too heavy. Simplify before people burn out.

·       Model and replicate: “Look around and model and replicate what your group has,” Boyd says. “That’s the point of the group.”

·       Plan for sustainability from day one: Design roles and programs with the post-grant reality in mind — who decides, what evidence they need, and what can be maintained.

RREDI’s core lesson is practical: Rural colleges don’t have to tackle rural innovation alone. They can build it together — through consistent collaboration, clear-eyed experimentation, and hubs that make opportunity easier to reach. Just as important, the work has forged relationships meant to last. “10 years after this grant's gone, we're still going to be going,” says Bixler. “This NSF grant has allowed us to create a community that's going to outlast these programs.”