What are IEP Reviewers Looking For?

On March 15, APLU hosted a webinar for its current IEP startup cohort built around the theme of “What are Reviewers Looking For?”

The panelists were: Shari Garmise, Executive Director of Urban and Regional Impact at Virginia Commonwealth University; Pete Pellerito, Interim VP, State Government Relations and Alliance Development at Biotechnology Innovation Organization; and John Provo, Executive Director at the Center for Economic and Community Engagement at Virginia Tech.

The panelists shared key insights from their experiences as reviewers, including:

• Demonstrate to reviewers that your accomplishments and engagement are real, whether it’s by surveys, focus groups, or metrics.
• Show authenticity, be sure to represent the breadth of who you are as an institution.
• Authenticity comes from navigating across different perspectives, recognizing these perspectives, and then integrating them into your Growth & Improvement plan.
• Be aligned with your community’s needs.
• Storytelling + Authenticity + Alignment = Top Impact Metrics.
• Take a holistic view of your community and understand the challenges and opportunities.
• Understand your institution’s values when performing economic development and community engagement.
• Understand partnerships and who these partners are, whether it’s academic, public policy, or industry.
• Utilize data to support your vision.
• Don’t just use metrics to show how your institution went from Point A to Point B; also include an interpretation of how this happened.
• Show examples and metrics relative to the institution’s value.
• Frame your application as a story.
• Use the Summary of Accomplishments table to manage your institution’s IEP application committee’s priorities, demonstrate a level of depth, and make a case for your institution’s impact story.
• Edit objectively to remove unnecessary metrics and information which does not fit into your institution’s economic engagement narrative.
• Do not just talk about the Talent-Innovation-Plan framework, elevate the framework’s dialogue.

Interested in Applying for Designation or Comment?
The next IEP Designation and Comment Deadline for 2023 is May 5, 2023. Access Momentive to submit your application.