Aligning Stakeholders and Structures to Enable Research Transformation (ASSERT) evolved from a National Science Foundation-funded project that serves to germinate, cultivate, and celebrate transformative research ideas and questions. This project is led by Professors Will Hughes and Donna Llewellyn, with project management support from Megan Gambs. The program is housed in the newly founded Institute for Inclusive & Transformative Scholarship at Boise State.

Each year, a cohort of faculty, from all ranks and various academic units, become an ASSERTive community as they work and grow together, identifying values, building leadership skills, and working towards transformational research.

Our work operates by improving academic structures, addressing the cultural issues at the university that inhibit academic risk taking, and supporting the personal development of faculty to facilitate their readiness to conceive transformative research ideas.