Sarah M. Trimmer
I've spent 17 years inside academic research administration watching a system fail the people it was built to serve.
Not dramatically. Not all at once. Just steadily, in the way that complex institutions fail: through accumulated workarounds, misaligned incentives, and a chronic inability to fix problems that everyone can see. Faculty running harder to stay in place. Staff absorbing risk that was never theirs to carry. Scientists doing everything but science.
I understand this system at a granular level. Where the friction lives, what it actually costs, and why it persists despite everyone's best intentions. That understanding is the foundation of everything I do.
But I'm not here to patch what's broken. The problems science needs to solve, the ones that affect human lives in the here and now, require research infrastructure that operates with more speed, more coordination, and more clarity of purpose than the current system is capable of delivering. That's the work I'm oriented toward.
I bring a rare combination of big picture thinking and execution. I'm a systems thinker who seeks truth over comfort, plans thoroughly, and stays until things actually work. I'm highly collaborative and I have no patience for solutions that look good on paper but ignore the political and human realities that determine whether anything actually changes.
If you're navigating what exists now or building what comes next, I'd like to talk.
Contact me, connect on LinkedIn, or simply join our curated community to exchange ideas, share what's working, and help shape the future of research administration.
Tammi Spring
I am a Harvard Innovations Award winning strategist, specializing in collaborative, prize, open, and crowdsourcing innovation methodologies to engage diverse groups of people in solving key problems and developing breakthrough solutions.
A few highlights:
- I created the foundation for, developed and launched the open innovation program for Boulder, Colorado’s National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) PSCR division, with core aspects including legal requirements with the America Competes Act and Grant Authority, partnerships with academia and business, integrations with Data.gov, and developing communication and outreach strategy to engage solvers.
- From 2011-2016, I ran the worldwide Challenge.gov program, providing strategy, operational, technical, and training support for 300 federal agencies, engaging more than 4.5 million people worldwide to contribute to 600+ crowdsourcing and prize competitions.
- I have advised and consulted with companies, countries, and local governments in the United States, Japan, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, and Mexico on how to set up collaborative innovation programs. Industries include nuclear energy, transportation, banking, healthcare, mobile technology, software, robotics, data and hackathons, product development, and creative ventures.
- Developed B2B and academic relationships and partnerships, along with more than a dozen crowdsourcing software providers and platforms. I have consulted with and led training for software platforms and their clients on how to use the tools to reach goals.
I work with organizations to help clearly define problems, set a vision for outcomes, and bring people together in the digital and in-person spaces to save money, drive efficiency, and accelerate timelines to solutions. Collaboration, diversity of ideas and expertise, partnered with community is foundational to success.
