North Texas is known as the intellectual capital of the state. And for good reason – the region is home to the most Carnegie designated R1 and R2 research universities of any Texas metro.
DFW is also home to the Texas Research Alliance (TRA), which helps businesses, public agencies and governments engage with North Texas’ robust higher education research infrastructure. Founded in 2014 by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Regional Chamber, the Fort Worth Chamber and the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, TRA creates regional collaborations between universities and companies, municipalities, public agencies and non-profit partners.
TRA’s mission is to help solve problems, meet regional challenges and grow research capacity and technology commercialization through company, municipality and government agency partnerships with North Texas’ research universities, particularly in areas of considered priorities for the region.
“Take mobility,” said TRA executive director, Victor Fishman. “Mobility equals freedom – freedom to achieve but right now, many communities have mobility challenges that restrain people. How do you fix that within the confines that exist – public transportation and funding for example?” The answer, Fishman said, is through new technologies.
TRA has developed the Center for Mobility Technologies (CMT), a collaboration among industry, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, UNT, UTA, SMU, and UTD to develop advanced mobility technologies.
Other notable TRA partnerships
TRA is engaged with academic researchers across a variety of research initiatives and meets regularly to evaluate how they can band together to solve some of the biggest challenges that lie ahead.
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- VPR Network – As a regional convener in the industry-university space, TRA established the ‘vice-presidents of research’ network (VPRN) to facilitate collaboration and information-sharing. The VPRN allows universities to share their strategic initiatives, find ways to work together on major proposals and provide updates on new facilities, capabilities and resources. It represents faculty from the UNT, UTA, UTD and SMU.
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- AI Alliance – TRA established the AI Alliance to support faculty collaboration across universities for proposals on major initiatives in AI. Since establishing the AI Alliance, universities have collaborated on proposals for AI Institutes through the National Science Foundation.
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- Texoma Logistics Innovation Alliance – TRA established the collaboration that won the Phase 1 Award of $1 million.
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- Texoma Semiconductor Tech Hub – TRA wrote the commercialization section of the winning Phase 1 Award of $500,000.
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These focused work groups wouldn’t exist without the TRA, which established relationships among the universities that balance their research interests with industry and government agency needs.
Complementing academic rigor with practical experience
TRA also leverages its network to connect academic research needs with the undergraduate and graduate students who are looking for hands-on experience.
One example of this concept in action is familiarizing companies with the many ways they can partner with universities that include internships, class projects, capstone programs and supporting theses and dissertations.
“Combining academic instruction with practical experience gives North Texas students an edge,” said Fishman. “When they graduate, they have a better understanding than some of their peers on how things really work.”
Additionally, TRA’s AI speaker series launched in 2023 – bringing together undergraduate and graduate students from across the metroplex to learn from industry leaders about current use-cases and employment opportunities.
The TRA is a 501c-3 non-profit organization founded by four of the largest chambers of commerce in Dallas-Fort Worth. For more information, check out the TRA’s website at tradfw.org.