Ten Ways that Universities and Funders Can Reward Research that Impacts Society

How can universities and funders support research that reaches beyond scholarly impact?

By Carnegie Corporation of New York February 22, 2024
Scholarship & Policy
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Sather Tower on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley (Credit: Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Report
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Scan of Promising Efforts to Broaden Faculty Reward Systems to Support Societally Impactful Research

This white paper outlines strategies that — by better rewarding publicly facing research — may help universities retain talented faculty, deepen public trust, and increase the impact of their research on issues of global and local significance. This paper also offers options for funders to accelerate universities’ efforts to expand promotion and tenure while strengthening the broader infrastructure for community- and policy-engaged research.

As vitally important institutions in society, universities advance knowledge both for its intrinsic value and in the service of society locally and globally. Yet universities tend to focus heavily if not exclusively on the scholarly impact of research in their promotion and tenure systems. How can these systems be changed to reward the societal impact of research? 

One way is to engage and incentivize faculty who are in line for tenure to participate in public-facing research activities. As U.S. universities reckon with data that show rapidly declining public trust in higher education, scholarship that impacts society offers opportunities to build confidence in their public value. 

In collaboration with a working group of the Transforming Evidence Funders Network, a cross-disciplinary funder network coordinated through the Evidence Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts, Carnegie Corporation of New York commissioned the white paper Scan of Promising Efforts to Broaden Faculty Reward Systems to Support Societally Impactful Research. The Corporation has sought since 2006 to provide scholars and policymakers with opportunities to share their knowledge with the public and positively influence foreign policy decision-making through its Bridging the Gap subprogram.

The TEFN paper offers an initial exploration of promising alternatives for promotion and tenure practices that reward research that is impacts society. Based on case examples from thirteen universities, it proposes 10 ways that higher education institutions can incentivize and reward policy and public engagement.

  1. Reform guidelines, criteria, and language for faculty advancement across campuses and systems. 
  2. Formalize roles and review processes to build institutional capacity for implementing faculty advancement guidelines in university departments, schools, and colleges. 
  3. Build capacity for faculty in developing promotion and tenure cases.
  4. Dedicate funding to accommodate the time-intensive nature of partnered scholarship. 
  5. Develop infrastructure to streamline research pain points often encountered in partnered scholarship. 
  6. Build scholarship that impacts society into institutional identity. 
  7. Provide graduate student and early career support and training for non-academic skill sets and career paths. 
  8. Strengthen cross-campus networks and programs to accelerate diffusion of innovations and impact. 
  9. Incentivize and make scholarship that impacts society visible, such as by funders and publishers. 
  10. Provide major multi-component support for high-profile university-wide impact initiatives. 

The paper also includes recommendations for funders to advance research that impacts society and encourage universities to value and support this work.

  1. Scale funding and increase visibility of grant programs aimed at research that impacts society.
  2. Design grant programs for scholarship that impacts society to maximize researchers’ effectiveness and career development. 
  3. Consider options for enhancing visibility and prestige of research that impacts society. 
  4. Support technical assistance and resource development for institutional changemakers. 
  5. Invest in larger-scale and long-term grants to university teams to support the work of institutional change. 
  6. Support promising mechanisms to help faculty achieve advancement for scholarship that impacts society. 
  7. Build a cohort of institutions and changemakers working to implement reforms by encouraging grantee collaboration across campuses and departments. 
  8. Collaborate with disciplinary societies and associations. 
  9. Convene a meeting or conference series of senior university leaders (chancellors, presidents, provosts) to advance a high-profile agenda for rewarding research that impacts society. 
  10. Support a community of practice for faculty and staff institutional changemakers leading bottom-up institutional change efforts. 

To learn more, read the full paper, Scan of Promising Efforts to Broaden Faculty Reward Systems to Support Societally Impactful Research.

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