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Located in the heart of the “Medical Mile” in the state’s second-largest city, Michigan State University’s Grand Rapids Innovation Park includes a research center where nearly three dozen teams of scientists are advancing our understanding of confounding health challenges, from autism to Alzheimer’s disease.

About an hour south of there, in rural Barry County, 12 MSU faculty and more than 20 graduate students and research associates are conducting experimental ecology research across a diverse range of habitats within the 4,000-acre W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, the university’s largest off-campus education complex and one of North America’s premier inland field stations.

Both places are among many sites beyond the main campus in East Lansing that contribute to MSU’s standing as one of the world’s leading public research universities. The findings that are uncovered in partnership with local communities there and elsewhere – from eight medical campuses around the state to an MSU Extension presence in all 83 Michigan counties – are solving real-world problems and forging a brighter future for Michiganders.

In addition to nearly $850 million in annual research and development expenditures, MSU also energizes Michigan by educating more in-state students than any other university and placing 64% of recent graduates in Michigan jobs.

MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz and a delegation of faculty and administrators will explore the breadth and depth of the university’s research, outreach and education impact later this month on an inaugural Spartan Bus Tour of more than a dozen places around the state where MSU is partnering with local communities to change Michigan and the world for the better.

“The purpose is twofold,” said Guskiewicz, who led a similar, successful bus tour while chancellor at the University of North Carolina.

“It’s for the faculty and staff to get out there and see those communities and learn from each of the stops. And it’s also to show Michiganders out in those communities that this is a proudly public university that is solving some of the grand challenges of our time right here in the Great Lakes State.”

MSU’s positive impact on Michigan

MSU’s statewide impact goes all the way back to its founding as the country’s premier land-grant institution in 1855, when it became a model for a new approach to higher education that emphasized practical application of knowledge as well as outreach all across Michigan to share new breakthroughs.

Among the fruits of that labor over the years have been the development of higher-yield hybrid corn, discovering new ways to detect and treat cancer, devising new methods to combat invasive species in the Great Lakes and creating improved vehicle computer vision and sensor technology to make autonomous vehicles safer. Today, Spartans continue to make a huge difference:

• MSU achieved a record $844 million in total research and development expenditures in 2023, strengthening key sectors of the Michigan economy including agriculture, education, health care, natural resources, automotive, engineering and tourism
• MSU contributes a $6.8 billion total economic impact in Michigan, with more than $770 million in spending with local businesses
• MSU Extension has a presence in all 83 Michigan counties, and the university’s AgBioResearch unit funds the work of more than 300 scientists at MSU and 15 research centers across the state

Complementing the outreach and economic impact, MSU educates about 37,000 Michiganders each year, making up 72% of the student body in 2023. And while about two-thirds of MSU grads start their careers in Michigan, many of them stay here longer and continue making a difference alongside nearly 300,000 other alumni living in the state.

Together, MSU alumni, students, faculty and staff impact every corner of the state, fostering a future full of opportunity and economic growth for all who live here.

“We’re proud of the important work we do,” Guskiewicz said. “On the tour, we’ll be able to see firsthand the vital role MSU plays by taking our expertise and the novel research findings that we uncover here on campus out to those 83 counties.”

Spartan Bus Tour 2024

The inaugural Spartan Bus Tour will make 15 stops in 13 cities and towns from Oct. 21-23, with Guskiewicz and about 50 faculty and administrators on board. As they go from stop to stop, they’ll gain a deeper understanding of Michigan and, in many cases, get an up-close look at how MSU’s groundbreaking research and teaching is changing the state for the better.

For example, the tour will visit Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club north of Manistee, which takes part in the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program that was developed by MSU’s top-ranked turfgrass management program. Participants also will pop into Muskegon High School where educators from MSU’s long-running, No. 1-ranked elementary and secondary education programs are putting their training into action on behalf of Michigan’s children.

At MSU’s Grand Rapids Innovation Park, which attracts new medical companies to the area, including one where health care professionals are deploying the nation’s first total-body PET/CT scanner for better cancer diagnosis and treatment, the tour will hear about how Spartans are taking research from the bench to the bedside through partnerships with clinicians.

For one, a collaboration between MSU and Corewell Health alone has generated more than $24 million of joint research initiatives in the community, addressing challenges such as traumatic brain injuries in children and creating new therapies for coronary artery disease. The partnership has even identified a rare genetic condition, now known as Bachmann-Bupp syndrome, and discovered a successful treatment that earned MSU and Corewell Health colleagues an Inventor of the Year award in 2023.

“It’s only made possible due to this collaboration,” said Paula Schuiteman-Bishop, vice president of research for Corewell Health, which also teams with students in MSU’s College of Human Medicine on research projects.

“We know this partnership is going to lead to the development of new treatments, drugs and use of medical devices that will benefit our patients here in West Michigan. This is what allows us to drive the best quality patient care around.”

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Before learning about the work in human health being done by more than 200 MSU research faculty and staff in Grand Rapids, the Spartan Bus Tour will share a glimpse of how the university benefits the health of Michigan crops, too. Guskiewicz and the rest of the group will visit the 137-acre Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center (NMHRC) in Traverse City to see how MSU partners with local fruit growers in the heart of cherry country. They’ll visit the station’s lab, tour the orchards and meet with farmers to hear about the value that MSU research brings to the community on issues ranging from soil health and irrigation to pest management and climate change.

“It’s a two-way street: Growers come to us with Challenge X, Y or Z and I turn to my fruit team around the state and address those issues,” said Nikki Rothwell, MSU Extension specialist and NMHRC coordinator. “It’s really a beautiful public-private partnership. This research center is working closely with the industry here and across the state to come up with solutions.”

To get an even broader sense of Michigan’s diverse economy, the tour will visit a few businesses, including an Amish-owned canning company that earned MSU’s 2024 Value-Added Agricultural Award and the Zeeland headquarters of MillerKnoll, a leading global manufacturer of office furniture.

Along the way, the tour will stop at a few of Michigan’s iconic outdoor recreation landmarks, too, including the 284-foot-high Dune Climb in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Lake Michigan beach in Ludington State Park, home to the picturesque Big Sable Point Lighthouse.

While at the beach in Ludington, tour participants will meet with a multidisciplinary team of Spartans led by Ethan Theuerkauf, an assistant professor and coastal geomorphologist who will present research on coastal erosion done in collaboration with lakeshore communities in Michigan and other Great Lakes states.

There also will be time to experience various aspects of Michigan’s rich culture. The tour will visit the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways in Mt. Pleasant to explore the state’s Native American heritage, for example, and the Muskegon Museum of Art, which features one of the finest studio glass collections in the Midwest and is undergoing a $15 million expansion to add several large gallery spaces.

Follow the Spartan Bus Tour

Guskiewicz believes this inaugural MSU trip will give faculty and administrators a golden opportunity to see how Spartan research in many university departments is making vital contributions out in the field. It also will nurture ideas for how their future work could help make communities across Michigan even stronger.

At the same time, the tour provides a chance for communities around the state to engage with MSU faculty about Spartan solutions they’re already putting into practice as well as new challenges they may be facing.

You can follow the Spartan Bus Tour on social media while it’s on the road by using the hashtag #SpartanBusTour. While this inaugural tour focuses on MSU’s impact in central and West Michigan, future annual bus tours will hit destinations in the Detroit area and elsewhere around the state.

After all, MSU has a presence and continues to invest in communities all over Michigan with an enduring dedication to helping the state thrive. And in each of those places, Spartans are valued parts of the community who translate research into actionable solutions that improve the lives of Michiganders.

“This tour is a great way to take faculty out across the state to see how their research and teaching can have an even greater impact for the citizens of the state,” Guskiewicz said.