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In 2023, the four institutions of Kettering University, University of Northern Colorado, University of the Incarnate Word, and Western Carolina University formed the EMERGE cohort (Enabling Meaningful External Research Growth in Emergent Technologies) under the inaugural NSF Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) program. Each institution in the cohort had its own plans and activities; however, the cohort also had a set of joint activities, and was encouraged under the program to provide mutual support and assistance to each other. In this paper, we set forth the goals for the cohort activities, discuss the success of the year one cohort activities, and indicate what additional benefits the cohort provided that were not planned in the grant proposal. Recommendations are provided for other institutions that may want to form similar cohorts, under this program or others. 

The NSF S-STEM-funded program titled Fostering Leaders in Technology Entrepreneurship (FLiTE) hosted by Western Carolina University has now completed its third year of operation. The program continues its mission to cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset and growth-oriented thinking among a cohort of engineering and technology students with the goal of creating graduates who become growth-oriented professionals and entrepreneurs. With the onboarding of its second-year recruiting class, the program has begun to observe the productive interactions of its vertically integrated cohort. Program activities for the 2024 calendar year have included a team-based pitch development program, scholar participation in an externally facilitated certificate course in business startup logistics, and the integration of scholar’s product ideas into the Project-Based Learning curriculum of the host department. This paper describes each of these program highlights. As the scholars progress in their degrees with some nearing the Flight phase of the program, the dynamics of integrating the scholars’ work into their degree curricula are addressed. Pre- and post-year surveys assessing scholars’ perception of their entrepreneurial selfefficacy are summarized, showing a positive trajectory.