IE3 is an experimental grant mechanism that leverages an inter-institutional partnership of 106 US colleges ranging from peer to aspirant institutions to community colleges in a shared vision of implementing critical changes in each campus' context that would not be attained if each partner institution worked in isolation.

Each of the institutions that made a commitment in March 2021 to the ie3 learning community was assigned to a Learning Community Cluster (LCC). LCCs are groups of approximately 15 institutions organized by the ie3 challenge they selected in their pre-proposal and include a diverse mix of degree-granting institution types. It is up to each LCC to figure out how to listen to the strengths that lie within each of their members, support one another in uncertainty, challenge one another to dig deeper, and hold one another accountable in ways that allow the wisdom of each person and each team to surface, be heard and valued.