As global pressures accelerate and the pace of technological change intensifies, universities are being asked to move faster, not only in discovery but in delivering real-world impact.
At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week, Rice University Provost Amy Dittmar delivered the opening remarks for a panel discussion focused on advancing innovation through collaboration. Hosted by Rice and also attended by the university’s President Reginald DesRoches, the conversation explored how academic and private-sector leaders can work together to accelerate innovation from the lab to the market.
“At Davos, we talk a lot about breakthrough ideas. What we talk about less is what happens after the breakthrough,” she said. “The hardest part of innovation today isn’t discovery — it’s delivery. What’s scarce is speed and rigor and systems that actually help ideas move from lab to real-world use.
“The stakes are high: Without proper support, university innovations will never reach the hands of those who would benefit most. Rice is hosting not because universities should be at the center of this conversation but because they have to be part of a redesigned system.”
Blueprint from Houston to the world
Rice has made a commitment to provide researchers with the infrastructure, connections and support needed to move discoveries beyond the lab and into clinical testing, companies and communities.
One example highlighted in Davos is the Rice Biotech Launch Pad , an accelerator designed to move health and medical discoveries from the lab toward real-world cures. The initiative connects Rice researchers with a national network of industry executives and funding partners while strengthening Houston’s position as a center of world-class innovation.
Among the projects emerging from the Launch Pad are “cell factories,” tiny hydrogel capsules and biocompatible devices aimed at preventing and treating infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria with support from the Gates Foundation. Another project is Targeted Hybrid Oncotherapeutic Regulation , or THOR, an implantable device that provides real-time feedback about cancer and adjusts in immunotherapy treatment, backed by the federal government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
In an interview with Rice News, Dittmar said these efforts underscore why a mix of public and philanthropic funding is so important to sustaining innovation at Rice.
“Having different funding sources allows you to have consistency and sustainability as well as the ability to support different kinds of work at Rice,” she said.
Partnerships that accelerate impact
Speed also depends on collaboration beyond a single campus. At Rice, that means deep partnerships within the Texas Medical Center — the world’s largest medical complex — including the Digital Health Institute , a joint effort with Houston Methodist that combines academic medicine, engineering, digital health and responsible artificial intelligence to transform patient care.
“These partnerships allow our researchers to work directly with clinicians, patients and health systems, which de-risks innovation and accelerates adoption,” Dittmar said.
Perhaps Rice’s most compelling example of fast, scalable impact is the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies . Through NEST360 (Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies) — an alliance of 22 institutions — Rice 360 is helping reduce deaths among small and sick newborns in sub-Saharan Africa. The work is supported by six of the world’s largest charitable foundations.
Working alongside four African governments, the initiative has already improved care for roughly 100,000 babies per year in participating hospitals through a package of affordable medical devices and clinical practices. The initiative recently expanded to 77 additional hospitals and a fifth country, Ethiopia.
“This model of bringing together African governments, researchers and philanthropy is work that can scale sustainably and have real impact on the ground,” Dittmar said.
In fiscal year 2025, foundations accounted for 22% of Rice’s total research expenditures, underscoring the role of philanthropic capital in moving ideas from promise to practice.
Taken together, Rice’s work — from Houston to Africa to Davos — reflects a broader vision of the next-generation research university, DesRoches stressed throughout meetings at the World Economic Forum: one that accelerates breakthroughs, strengthens cities, expands economic opportunity and delivers measurable impact.