Supporting societally impactful research is key to enhancing universities’ mission
Universities in the United States face a challenging historic moment, as enrollment declines and trust in higher education decreases. One way universities can demonstrate their value is to enhance the generation, recognition, and visibility of societally impactful research, which addresses pressing large-scale challenges and often involves collaboration with stakeholders outside of academia. The path forward requires strong faculty incentives for conducting such research (which will require reforms in tenure and promotion criteria) and administrative structures that support these forms of scholarship. Fortunately, a range of universities, academic associations, and funding organizations are working to encourage such changes, providing models for advancing societally impactful research. Drawing on a recent report describing these efforts, the authors of this article highlight a range of emerging approaches for fostering societally impactful research and suggest strategies for making further progress in this area. By increasing their capacity to produce societally impactful research, universities can enhance how faculty bring their knowledge and expertise to bear on local, national, and global issues and can thereby more effectively fulfill their institutional missions.
