Civic Innovation Initiative
Led by Dr. Jonathan Garlick, Auster Center Fellow and Founding Director of the Civic Science Collective. Current focus: Trust in Artificial Intelligence—exploring how communities navigate AI's growing role in civic life.
Innovation Initiatives
Fellows-Led. Domain-Focused. Built to Last.
The Auster Center's initiatives are the living expression of its mission. Each one is directed by an Auster Center Fellow—a Tufts researcher who has built expertise, networks, and credibility in their field and is now channeling that into organized, applied innovation work.
Initiatives bring together faculty, students, industry collaborators, community organizations, and funders around a defined domain. They generate research, train the next generation of applied innovators, build collaborations, and produce real outcomes in the world.
As the Center grows its community of Fellows, new initiatives launch. Each represents an opportunity—for researchers to lead, for students to contribute, for industry to collaborate, and for donors to invest in work that carries their name and their values into the future.
Food and Nutrition Innovation Initiative
Led by Dr. Suzannah Gerber, Auster Center Fellow and food-system innovation leader. Current focus: translating emerging food technologies—including cellular agriculture and alternative proteins—into market-ready, community-accepted solutions.
Upcoming Initiatives
The Auster Center is actively building initiatives across health, defense, AI, energy, and more. Explore domains in development and learn how you can help shape what comes next.