About
Our Defining Vision
The NeXT Center Initiative redefines the role of the modern research university. It is rigorous and relevant, theoretically sophisticated and practically engaged. By institutionalizing translational research with partners across the campus and in the community, the Center will strengthen public trust in higher education, prepare a new generation of scholars fluent in both discovery and application, and ensure community-driven and community-relevant research.
This is the research university of the future: discovery and impact advancing together, while forging genuine and durable partnerships.
Demonstrated Excellence
UC Irvine — ranked among the nation’s top public universities — has built its reputation on tackling big questions through cross-disciplinary innovation. That same spirit of agility, diversity, and public mission underpins the School of Social Sciences’ foundation for translational research, showing how social science at the intersection of disciplines produces both new theory and applied solutions.
In financial technology, collaborations with UC Irvine social scientists have revealed the trust mechanisms shaping adoption in underserved communities, generating behavioral insights and tools that expand access. In human–AI interaction, social science researchers are advancing safer, more productive human–machine collaboration by applying psychology to system design.
Partnerships with Toyota, Experian, and others have shown how organizational behavior and consumer psychology influence innovation, while community-engaged programs with K–12 students, veterans, and incarcerated individuals have opened pathways to opportunity while deepening our understanding of learning.
Together, these efforts demonstrate how social sciences at UC Irvine is already connecting disciplines and communities — laying the foundation for a translational research hub with national relevance and tangible societal impact.
The Impact
The NeXT Center Initiative will deliver outcomes that reach far beyond campus. Its research will shape national conversations and global agendas, offering insights to guide technology, health, policy, and culture.
Communities will not only participate in discovery but also trust and adopt innovations that improve lives. Students will graduate prepared for careers across academia, industry, and public service — equipped to bridge disciplines and deliver lasting solutions.
Just as importantly, the Center will sustain public trust in higher education by showing how rigorous research translates directly into societal benefit. Its participatory model engages community partners, industries, and policymakers as co-investigators, ensuring that solutions emerge from real needs and can be put to use.
Shaping What's NeXT
The NeXT Center Initiative is a commitment to a future where discovery becomes application, where insight becomes innovation, and knowledge translates into impact.
It will also strengthen UC Irvine from within: giving faculty the seed funding and a collaborative platform to launch bold new projects; preparing undergrads and graduates with the applied research skills that lead to translational careers; and positioning the university as a national thought leader in how research is evaluated and rewarded.