IT Innovation + Research

The Innovation + Research team within Information Technology is on mission to lead, coordinate, and facilitate the discovery and exploration of emerging technologies and innovative solutions that catalyze digital transformation (DX) at Grand Valley State University.

Collaborating with internal and external partners through a rich "Education Futures Collaboratory and Innovation Ecosystem", our team strives to explore novel technologies, spark new ideas, serve as a change agent, and conduct experiments to create a robust portfolio of solutions, services, and resources that are purposefully designed to:

  • Further academic and research initiatives
  • Facilitate quality digital education
  • Enhance the learner experience
  • Encourage a culture of innovation
  • Build the next generation of teaching and learning spaces
  • Support the University’s mission and strategic priorities

Our focus is to:

  1. Generate enthusiasm for new, emerging, immersive, and innovative technologies around the future of education.
  2. Build confidence, incubate, and generate adoption of new ideas and models powered by technology by facilitating experimentation, increasing early adoption participation, promoting influencers, and celebrating successes.
  3. Scale up deployment through awareness, collaboration, and generating communities of practice, laying the foundation for digital transformation.

Add your Voice to the Community of IT Innovation + Research

  • Interested in exploring an innovative technology?
  • Excited about lowering the barriers for exponential impact?
  • Focused on accelerating change and creating a future-ready campus?
  • Wanting to get plugged into the innovation pipeline?
  • Desiring to explore an idea to add value and transform the university yet need a catalyst?
  • Looking for opportunities to reduce friction, remove inefficiencies, solve challenges, and improve the education journey at GVSU?

Don't venture forward alone, join us! Reach out to our IT Innovation + Research team, and let's partner together in a journey to imagine, reach higher, and create the next-generation of education.

Eric Kunnen

Eric Kunnen
Senior Director, IT Innovation + Research


60+
Emerging Technologies

Exhibited in the TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE.

15+
Courses

Visited the TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE as part of curricular experience or assignment.

85,000+
Visitors

Toured the TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE since August 2015.

20+
Innovative Technologies

eXplored, eXperienced, eXperimented and researched in the X►STUDIO.

"Transforming education through innovation..."



Page last modified July 17, 2025