The IDC Foundation promotes innovation in architecture, engineering, and building construction with an emphasis on interaction among those fields to address pressing societal needs. The Foundation funds initiatives consistent with the following logic model:
The P - R - I - C - E of Innovation
The Problem: Greater innovation is required through the interaction of architecture, engineering, and building construction to solve pressing societal needs.
Underlying Conditions: There is limited interaction among students, professors, practitioners, and others in the three fields, which train and solve problems separately. The fields use different terminology and tools. Their potential for collaborative innovation is vastly under-realized.
Approach: Enhance innovation – in the three fields and their interaction – through grantmaking that supports student experiences in the following five key elements:
Processes
Create processes that stimulate ongoing interactions among fields leading to innovation.
Research
Conduct research using interactions among the fields in pursuit of innovation.
Individuals
Support individuals in one or more of the three fields to enhance the prospects for innovation.
Curricula
Develop and implement curricula to promote interactions across fields and maximize evolving processes and other initiatives.
Ecosystem
Enhance the overall ecosystem and its culture: how individuals are engaged and how they interact.
Since its founding in 2015, the IDC Foundation has provided grants consistent with this logic model of more than $14 million to five institutions of higher education in Greater New York City: Columbia University, NYIT, New York University, Pratt Institute, and The Cooper Union.
Highlights of that grantmaking are described in the links below: