Empowering Future Leaders through Innovation Science

The demands facing global business, governments, and society as a whole are increasingly complex, and changing at an ever accelerating pace. Navigating this dynamic environment will require leaders who understand how to bring order to this complexity, drive and navigate social change, and develop, scale and tailor solutions to our most pressing problems that are capable of yielding the reach, significance, paradigm change, and longevity of influence that we call impact.

At Purdue, we are taking on this challenge by developing the research-derived foundations of a new field, Innovation Science – that is the study of the mindsets, behaviors, attributes, tools, and methods employed in the innovative activity of individuals and organizations.  This emerging area of study is unique to only a handful of institutions of higher education around the world, and blends insights and methods from fields such as strategy, economics, entrepreneurship, systems-of-systems, design, policy, anthropology, sociology, complexity, education, engineering education, engineering, technology, and technology history to define new approaches to frame problems, identify and develop solutions, and drive adoption at scale.

Our vision is to empower our students, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, with foundational background in Innovation Science and in-depth learning experiences that allow them to put Innovation Science mindsets and skills into action.  

Ultimately, innovation is the source of leadership in many domains and is a fundamental driver of impact. In industry, innovation drives differentiated competitive advantage. In academia, innovation is the basis of thought leadership and scholarly excellence. And, in the non‐profit sector, innovation likely holds the key to sustainable solutions to heretofore intractable problems, often referred to as Grand Challenges. In this regard, achieving innovation is no longer simply an aspiration; it is an imperative!