Please join us for an informative networking opportunity with community partners, Native and Indigenous organizations, civic organizations, and members of the UArizona community. Presenters will showcase productive institutional engagement and research collaborations while highlighting tools and preferred practices that support them. At the event, you will have the opportunity to connect with campus, local, and regional partners. UArizona values collaborations where the University and community engage as equal partners in all steps of the research, teaching, and engagement processes with the goals of educating, improving practice, and bringing about social change. 

Speakers: 

• Jennifer Fields, Executive Director, Office of Societal Impact 
• Anne Kurtin, Senior Associate Director, Integrated Learning Partnerships

Developing and implementing successful research impact activities is often dependent on identifying the right partner(s) and establishing a productive collaboration. But how do you find a "just right" research partner and what are the elements of a successful partnership?   

In this webinar, we will present strategies for building lasting partnerships with industry, government, schools and community-based organizations.  

Speakers: 

• Jennifer Fields, Executive Director, Office of Societal Impact 
• Greg Hitt, Associate, Research & Outreach Programs, University of Arizona College of Engineering School of Mining

Successful teams lead to successful projects. Learn about collaborative project management (CoPM) tools and practices that put the people of the project at the center. These practices enhance team cohesion, sharpen shared understandings of goals and deliverables, and incorporate organizational cultures in order to coordinate stakeholder timelines, talent, and preferences.  

 In this session we will explore how and when to use the CoPM tools so that you can create a customized plan to promote and support your synergistic, multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational team.  This workshop is great for principal investigators, project coordinators and managers, team members from all partnering organizations, new faculty and postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students preparing for academia or industry careers. 

Speakers:

• Michelle Higgins, Associate Director, Office of Societal Impact 
• Cara Graham, Program Manager, Office of Societal Impact

12:00 – 1:00 pm MST 
Extended Q&A until 1:30pm  

Register Here

As scientists and researchers, we are regularly called upon to communicate our research and disseminate results to our disciplinary colleagues. This often takes the form of peer reviewed papers, talks to scientific audiences, and conference presentations and posters.  However, as trust in the scientific process and in public institutions is being eroded, it is critical that we have the skills to talk about our research and its impact on society in different ways, to a variety of non-technical audiences. These might include legislators, government officials and others in positions to influence policy decisions. It frequently includes the public of all ages and backgrounds through more informal community offerings, such as public science talks, science exhibits, or summer camps. 

This webinar will provide tips to prepare you to communicate the impact of your research to lay audiences. We will discuss strategies to move the conversation from a scientific presentation to a relational conversation where you understand your audience and their needs, listen to find common ground and understand what will influence them, and focus on the impact of your work beyond your scientific discipline to communities who will benefit.  

Speakers:

• Jennifer Fields, Executive Director, Office of Societal Impact
• Michelle Higgins, Associate Director, Office of Societal Impact 
• Dr. Josh Anderson, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona School of Journalism 

12:00 – 1:00 pm MST 
Extended Q&A until 1:30pm 

Register Here

Researchers are familiar with describing and assessing their research outputs and results. But how do you know that you are making an impact in society? Whether your funder requires it, or you are personally driven to incorporate a broader impacts plan into your research project, this component should be accompanied by a well-articulated plan for evaluating the broader impacts activities that are being proposed. This can present a challenge for investigators who are not trained in program evaluation.  

This workshop will provide a brief introduction to the role of project evaluation in research impact.  We will define evaluation terms like outputs, outcomes, and impacts; discuss impact indicators and potential data sources and methods; introduce standard evaluation tools including logic models and evaluation matrices; and describe the critical components needed to develop impact evaluation plans tailored to the research goals.

Speakers:  

• Jennifer Fields, Executive Director, Office of Societal Impact
• Michelle Higgins, Associate Director, Office of Societal Impact

12:00 – 1:00 pm MST 
Extended Q&A until 1:30pm

Register Here

More information to follow.

Speakers:  

• Alison Meadow, Research Professor, Arizona Institute for Resilience

12:00 – 1:00 pm MST 
Extended Q&A until 1:30pm

Building Broader Impacts Partnerships: Developing and implementing successful Broader Impacts (BI) activities is often dependent on identifying the right partner(s) and establishing a productive collaborative. But how do you find a "just right" BI partner? What are the elements of a successful partnership? How can you ensure that the relationship is mutually beneficial for both members of the partnership?  These and other questions will be answered in this interactive workshop.

Collaborative Project Management: We offer Collaborative Project Management workshops for multi-disciplinary or multi-institutional teams. Facilitated discussions work to 1) align personal, departmental or institutional, and project goals, and 2) coordinate diverse professional cultures through collaborative timelines and team protocols. Discussions also aim to clarify project scope and responsibilities, and identify potential risks to the project and risks to team cohesion. Join us for a scheduled workshop, or contact us if you would like to include this workshop in your project kick-off or team retreat.

Developing your Broader Impacts Identity:  Most researchers are comfortable thinking about and discussing their research identity — who they are as researchers and what contributions they hope to make to their discipline through their research over the course of their careers. It is far less common, however, for researchers to think about their impact identity — the lasting impacts they aspire to have on their community and on society, as a whole, through their broader impacts work. By developing your impact identity, you no longer have to view each new proposal’s broader impacts statement as a ‘one-off’ activity, starting from scratch each time, but instead an ongoing, graduated approach that continues to build on previous work toward your overarching societal impact goals.

This interactive workshop will introduce the concept of a broader impacts identity and walk investigators through a process for starting to define BI identity. While any researcher is likely to benefit from this workshop, it is particularly relevant to early-career researchers (as well as to broader impacts professionals who work with researchers and can play a crucial role in helping them develop their BI identities).

Evaluating Broader Impacts Activities:  All NSF proposals must not only have a broader impacts component, but a well-articulated plan for evaluating the broader impacts activities that are being proposed. This can present a challenge for investigators who are not trained in program evaluation. This workshop will provide a brief introduction to the basics of program evaluation and connect participants with some tools and resources to help them get started.