R&D League Program
Operating from the City of San Antonio’s Office of Innovation with two dedicated City staff members, the R&D League was formed in January 2020 when the City of San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the University of Texas at San Antonio, and USAA signed a 3-year Memorandum of Understanding to commit to a cross-sector research partnership to investigate new ideas, make evidence-based decisions, and explore the frontier of innovation.
In its first three years, the League has hosted multiple events to gather input from the community and collaborate on objectives. San Antonio’s brightest academics, engineers, designers, practitioners and residents came together to learn about technology, data, challenges and opportunities for the League to explore critical areas including mobility, environment, public safety, housing, health, and the digital divide.
In 2021, the City of San Antonio established a Master Research Agreement with UTSA to facilitate and accelerate research with dedicated resources to increase connectivity between city employees and UTSA researchers for projects benefiting residents of San Antonio.
The R&D League partners have collaborated on over 30 grant submissions with 6 awarded to date. The League has also launched 13 projects that explore solutions to city challenges.
To foster research collaborations between academic and scientific researchers with City departments, the R&D League launched the Research Partnerships Portal, which shares City-identified challenges in an effort to connect with academic and scientific researchers who have the knowledge and methods to help us find evidence-based solutions for these projects.
Project information can be found below and on the Research Partnerships Portal.