Accelerating Impact with David Meaney

As funding models evolve and artificial intelligence reshapes discovery, David Meaney, Vice Provost for Research and the Solomon R. Pollack Professor at Penn Engineering, is guiding the University toward a more agile and impact-driven research model—one that depends on visionary partnerships to accelerate breakthroughs and advance the most promising new ideas.

Q. Penn has long been recognized as a global research powerhouse. How would you characterize Penn’s research identity today? What differentiates Penn’s approach to research and innovation from that of other institutions?

Penn is exceptionally good at putting ideas to work. We generate insights across the spectrum—from CAR T cell therapies and mRNA technology, to policy innovation and the ways we think about the composition of the workforce—and we translate them into practice. Our ability to span the full arc from fundamental discovery to implementation is part of our secret sauce.

What differentiates us is both the range of what we do and our intentional focus on impact. Historically, Penn has done that extraordinarily well, and we’re positioned to do even more in the future.

Q. Penn Forward, the University’s current strategic planning initiative, places research at the core of advancing Penn’s mission. What can you share about your work leading the Research Strategy and Financing working group, and how do you see Penn’s research engine evolving in the coming years?

Three strong themes have emerged as part of Penn Forward. First, we need to deepen our partnerships with industry so that we become even more agile in moving ideas to market. As our research becomes more practical and more directly useful to society, industry partners should be engaged from the earliest stages of an idea all the way through product development. Our faculty increasingly see this as a critical dimension of their scholarship, and these partnerships will further strengthen Penn’s role as an economic engine in the region. Second, we are advancing what we call the ‘One Penn’ research ecosystem, making it far easier for scholars to find collaborators across disciplines and schools. At a university of our size, we have extraordinary expertise, but we need more robust ways to connect with one another. Third, we need to consider new funding models that will allow us to strategically deploy resources for bold, unproven ideas that need early support to fully develop.

Read more at Penn Today.