Support faculty, staff and students’ ability to extend their research across the world with international partnerships.

CGE promotes a culture of collaborative innovation in research, learning, and engagement. Through these efforts, CGE fosters global cultural diversity and inclusiveness to benefit our university stakeholders and the residents of Tennessee.

Advancing Global Research and Building Global Networks

Global Research, Innovation and Partnerships Office (GRIP) works closely with the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development (ORIED), to monitor and match global funding opportunities with our faculty and expertise. GRIP also provide pre-award support such as proposal development, connection and facilitation of multidisciplinary teams, and partner networking. From November 2023 to July 2024, GRIP has shared 67 globally focused grant opportunities with faculty and facilitated 6 grant proposals.

Research Network

Immigration sponsorship led by ISSS connects UT to a global research network of 302 institutions across 49 countries fueling collaboration and research projects across campus. Connections through this research network connect UT to 45 of the top 100 ranked institutions in the world. The Exchange Visitor Program further connects the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the University of Tennessee System and the Cherokee Research Farm to subject matter experts from around the world and enables their placement and collaboration with research and innovation projects and startups.

Research Support and Innovation

ISSS provides direct immigration sponsorship support to academic colleges and units at the University of Tennessee through the H-1B visa and other programs. This enables UT to recruit talented researchers, post-docs, faculty and staff from around the world. The Exchange Visitor Program allows academic units to engage in special programs that facilitate exchange partnerships, complete student and public-private partnership internships and conduct research.

Semester	H-1B Visas	Post-Docs	Exchange Visitors
Spring 2023	117	124	217
Fall 2023	117	127	312
Spring 2024	136	148	206

Research Security Compliance

UT faces a growing number of regulations from state, federal and international governments and compliance bodies, including in research security. During the 2023-2024 academic year, Global Risk extended its partnerships across campus to address these ever-changing requirements head on, including new regulations in the forms of NSPM-33 and the CHIPS and Science Act. Global Risk’s role in these international compliance efforts, including partnership vetting, ensures that faculty, staff and students can pursue research opportunities around the world while ensuring the institution meets its compliance obligations.

Catalyzing Innovation

The Global Catalyst grants are a re-envisioning of the Ready for the World grants and support activities in the areas of faculty international research and partnership development, international programs on the UT campus and student international research and conference travel. Congratulations to the 2023-24 grant recipients.

Andrea Lear	Gregor Kalas	Xiaopeng Zhao	Dimitris A. Herrera	Hojung Kim	Jan Musfeldt
Assistant Professor – Large Animal Clinical Science	Associate Professor, College of Architecture & Design	Professor – Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering	Assistant Professor, Department of Geography & Sustainability	Assistant Professor – College of Architecture & Design	Professor, Department of Chemistry
UT Institute of Agriculture	School of Architecture	Tickle College of Engineering	College of Arts & Sciences	School of Interior Architecture	College of Arts & Sciences

Unique Partnerships with Future Leaders

Through key government leaders in Tennessee and Panama, ELI has engaged in a partnership with SENAFRONT in Panama. This puts ELI is at the forefront of equipping future leaders with English language skills in a geo-political and -economical region. Further, ELI hosted a group from Muroran, Japan, in Spring 2024. Muroran is an international sister-city with Knoxville. This partnership was developed with key stakeholders across the city and on campus and was designed to expose high school students to life in an English-medium university in the United States.