The Innovation Collaborative and its national partners have joined together to create the Innovation Collaborative (IC), a new, national organization networking the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities in education to promote innovation thinking for students of all ages. IC focuses on the dissemination of research and effective practices in the intersections of art and design, science, humanities, and engineering, use of technology, and creativity, cognition, and learning in both Pre-K-12 and informal learning settings.

The Innovation Collaborative is an outcome of the National Science Foundation-funded Science, Engineering, Arts, Design (SEAD) network and initiatives which were co-organized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. More information on these initiatives can be found here: http://seadnetwork.wordpress.com/about/.

The work of the Innovation Collaborative will be around four central goals:

1) Research

2) Effective Practices

3) Policy

4) Convening

The work on these four goals will be undertaken by the organization’s Leadership Council, in collaboration with its Research Thought Leaders (including Dr. James Catterall, Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, Dr. Hubert Dyasi, Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein and Dr. R. Keith Sawyer), and with educators, policy advisors and government leaders in Washington, D.C. The Innovation Collaborative will work to support and build on current policy efforts, such as the Congressional STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Aaron Schock (R-IL).

Leadership Council members of the Innovation Collaborative specifically include Americans for the Arts (AFTA), Association of Science - Technology Centers (ASTC), National Art Education Association (NAEA), National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), ICEE Success Foundation (ICEE) and National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).

The Innovation Collaborative is soon launching a pilot research project to identify effective practices that promote innovation thinking at the arts, science, and humanities intersections in K-12 education.