About Us
We believe research impacts the shape of society and society impacts the shape of research. Our goal is to challenge the research enterprise to be more inclusive and to focus on impacts beyond benefits to departments or disciplines. And we work to translate the curiosity and expertise of researchers into policies, practices, and programs to benefit society, measuring reach not only in articles published and conferences attended, but in lives touched and improved. Through every step of the research process, we help researchers center real people and their real lives.
What We Do
- Help researchers view their work through the lens of societal impact, guiding them through the process of uncovering who might benefit from their work and how best to deliver usable products and information
- Eliminate barriers and broaden pathways to expand who conducts research, whose needs guide research, and who benefits from research
- Make research more widely accessible with thoughtful, tailor-made education and public outreach
How We Do It
- Support marginalized students
- Consult on and evaluate grant proposals
- Design impact activities for research programs
- Provide a searchable database of programs and facilitate partnerships
- Offer trainings and workshops on how to make wide-ranging and inclusive impacts
Mission: To work collaboratively with University of Arizona’s faculty, researchers, scholars, and practitioners, and in partnership with our communities to ensure that equitable participation and the greatest possible societal impact of UArizona research & creative inquiry is realized.
Overarching goals:
1) Increase equitable representation and build an inclusive culture across UA research & creative inquiry
2) Maximize the benefit to society that results from UA research & creative inquiry
Specific Objectives:
-
Create and sustain infrastructure (policies, programs, practices, funding, networks, etc.) to support goals
-
Motivate, drive and sustain culture change towards equitable representation and increase access for historically marginalized groups across UA research & creative inquiry.
-
Develop frameworks and structures that support societal benefit as a valued metric for research impact, and that incentivize societal impact efforts throughout UA research & creative inquiry
-
Provide professional development opportunities and research development support for faculty, staff, our team, and our partners to achieve our goals
-
Share/transfer knowledge about best practices related to our goals; facilitate uptake of research-based practices and uptake of DEI best practices
-
Conduct research and evaluation to generate new knowledge about our sphere of interest and influence; identify institutional challenges, barriers and solutions to inclusion across UA research & creative inquiry
-
Facilitate reciprocal and equitable community partnerships - broadly defined to include industry, schools, non-profits, government agencies, and other potential stakeholders - across UA research & creative inquiry
-
Demonstrate a return on investment from our collective work
Team Directory
Christopher Oka
Curriculum and Training Manager with the Societal Impact Group, Project CREAR
