Supporting Public Impact Research Through Institutional Transformation

The Supporting Public Impact Research through Institutional Transformation project (SPIRIT) (NSF #2404600) aims to build the capacity of public and land-grant universities to enable and support faculty doing public impact research (PIR). PIR is university research that improves lives and serves society locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.

Our Goals

SPIRIT will:

• Document PIR-enabling institutional strategies through campus case studies and interviews with campus leaders.
• Build a community of related national efforts, projects, and organizations to identify areas for resource sharing, collaboration, and capacity building.
• Support APLU members and other university leaders in building capacity and knowledge around enabling PIR through in-person and virtual workshops.

Why It Matters

With a shifting federal policy and funding landscape, public and land-grant universities are seeking to more clearly demonstrate their impact on local, state, national, and global communities. University leaders can help enable public impact research by building campus and stakeholder structures and policies that develop committed leaders and a clear vision for PIR; reform faculty and research staff appointment, retention, tenure, and promotion practices; resource, recognize, and celebrate PIR activities; and document, understand, and communicate the impact of PIR at all levels of the institution.

By engaging APLU’s more than 250 public and land-grant university and system members, this project has the potential to improve experiences and impact for the over 250,000 faculty. The learning SPIRIT generates is amplified through the National Knowledge Partners to inform national movements toward broadening the bar for quality faculty work. APLU will also host a convening for its members and develop resources to support institutional adoption of key strategies.

Our Partners

Campus Partner Pilots
In depth case studies will be conducted with PIR-enabling leaders, faculty, and staff at Pennsylvania State University, the University of California, Davis, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Washington State University. These campus partners have identified strategies that are specific to their institutional and local contexts, and responsive to a rapidly changing research environment. A key focus of the case studies will be identifying the cultural dynamics that enable PIR. Leaders from other APLU member institutions will also be surveyed and/or interviewed about their approaches to enabling PIR to produce a broad landscape analysis of current practices.

National Knowledge Partners
SPIRIT includes five National Knowledge Partners who are working in aligned or complementary areas of reform. They contribute learning from their efforts and benefit from engagement with the campuses and peer national knowledge partners. Our partners are:

• ADVANCE Partnership: Strategic Partnership for Alignment of Community Engagement in STEM (SPACES)
• Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS)
• Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
• Promotion and Tenure in Innovation & Entrepreneurship (PTIE)
• Pew Charitable Trusts’ Evidence Project

In addition to the National Knowledge Partners, a variety of other aligned initiatives and organizations are also participating in regular coordination calls to amplify knowledge sharing and resource tracking.

Project Advisory Board
A project advisory board, comprised of experts on faculty reward and evaluation systems, conducting PIR, and supporting faculty facing barriers to PIR, alongside representatives from key APLU member communities, will help guide the project’s activities.

Related Work

Learn more about APLU’s prior efforts to support faculty and public impact research: Public Impact Research homepage, Public Impact Research Award, NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance, and Modernizing Scholarship for the Public Good.

Project Leadership and Contact Information

• Dr. Jessica Bennett (SPIRIT PI), Associate Vice President, APLU | jbennett@aplu.org
• Dr. Kacy Redd (SPIRIT Co-PI), Associate Vice President, APLU | kredd@aplu.org
• Dr. Jennifer Renick (SPIRIT Co-PI), Assistant Professor of Ecological/Community Psychology, Michigan State University

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2404600. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.