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The HIBAR Research Alliance

Expanding Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive Research To Accelerate Service To Society

Building Infrastructure for HIBAR Research

Modernizing scholarship for the public good

Modernizing scholarship for the public good

An action framework for public research universities​​

June 2024

The problems facing communities, regions, countries, and the globe are increasingly multifaceted and complex – challenging public research universities to expand and renew how they deliver on their missions for a new era.  In response to these challenges, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) launched the Modernizing Scholarship for the Public Good initiative, with a goal of spurring more publicly engaged and impactful research.

This initiative culminated in an extensive action framework that offers guidance to public research universities on ways that they can support scholars and advance publicly engaged and impactful research, with special attention to the ways that diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are integral to this work.

In 2021, Dr. Elyse Aurbach was named a Civic Science Fellow, co-hosted by APLU and the University of Michigan’s Office of the Vice President for Research, to lead this multi-institutional project. In this webinar, she described the framework and highlighted institutional examples from universities that have successfully taken such action, focusing on strategic actions that institutions can take to encourage and enable more Highly Integrative Basic and Responsive (HIBAR) projects.

Here are several key links that Dr. Aurbach shared during the presentation:

Key Takeaway Messages

There are no “one size fits all” strategies that will enable organizational change at all universities.

Significant and sustained change requires a lot of time and/or resources.

Organizational culture eats policy, procedure, and practice for lunch.

Look for opportunities to lay the groundwork for future change efforts.

Our collective progress is hindered by the lack of shared terminology about impactful, engaged research.

Institutional change efforts are most effective when they include meaningful assessment tools.

Meaningful, sustained change is often a result of a long-term, deliberative process.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speaker

Elyse Aurbach

University of Michigan

Elyse Aurbach is Director for Public Engagement & Research Impacts in the University of Michigan’s Office of Research. In this role, Dr. Aurbach develops strategy and oversees a team to support university faculty in their public engagement efforts. She previously served as Public Engagement Lead with the Center for Academic Innovation, overseeing the center’s role in a Presidential strategic focus area on faculty public engagement, and pursued a double-life as a scientist studying the neurobiological underpinnings of major depression and leading a number of projects to improve science communication and public engagement.

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Catalyzing Change by Supporting Embedded Expertise

Catalyzing Change by Supporting Embedded Expertise

Researchers and Practitioners Partner to Transform Education and Stimulate Teaching and Learning Excellence

February 2023

Much has been learned in recent years about postsecondary instructional methods that lead to better student learning, but these methods are not yet widely implemented, predominately because their implementation requires a change in academic culture, not simply changes in individual behavior. The “Transforming Education, Stimulating Teaching and Learning Excellence”, or TRESTLE, project is a leading example of ongoing efforts to address this culture-change challenge.

Led by the University of Kansas, TRESTLE is a collaboration of seven research universities that aims to help Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) departments transform undergraduate courses in order to improve undergraduate learning and educational outcomes. The TRESTLE model involves embedding STEM education experts (specially prepared postdoctoral scholars or faculty leaders) in departments, to collaborate with department faculty to guide and support the implementation of research-based educational practices. 

In this webinar, TRESTLE leaders Andrea Follmer Greenhoot and Caroline Bennett described the HIBAR research characteristics of the project, and the synergy generated by the “embedded expertise” partnership between researchers and educators. They also shared insights they have gained about catalyzing academic culture change, including how collaboration among similar institutions increases the opportunity for good ideas to emerge and spread.

Key Takeaway Messages

Deep partnerships between researchers and practitioners enables rapid iteration of practice-informed improvements.

When institutions collaborate on change efforts, good ideas emerge and spread more quickly.

Institutional change initiatives are more often most effective if they are situated within a unit that has broad reach

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speakers

Andrea Follmer Greenhoot

University of Kansas

Dr. Andrea (“Dea”) Follmer Greenhoot is Professor of Psychology, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Gautt Teaching Scholar at the University of Kansas. Dea serves as Director of the Bay View Alliance and is principle investigator of the BVA’s TRESTLE project.. 

Caroline Bennett

University of Kansas

Dr. Caroline Bennett is Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and Dean R. and Florence W. Frisbie Associate Chair of Graduate Studies at the University of Kansas. She also serves as a campus leader for the TRESTLE project. 

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Building Sustained Research-Practice Partnerships

Building Sustained Research-Practice Partnerships

A targeted funding program enables research institutions to shift their policies and practices to value collaborative research

January 2023

Research-practice partnerships bring together experts from the research and practice communities to develop a joint research agenda to address pressing questions. However, despite its considerable benefits, collaborative work of this type is not always valued by universities and, as a result, policies and practices within universities can inadvertently create disincentives for faculty members to participate in research-practice partnerships. 

In response to these obstacles, the William T. Grant Foundation established the Institutional Challenge Grant program, encouraging research institutions to remove barriers that inhibit collaborative work. In addition to supporting an existing institutional partnership to pursue a joint research agenda, these grants enable changes in institutional policy and practice to value research-practice partnerships and enhance the capacity of researchers and practitioners to together produce and use high-quality rigorous research results. 

In this webinar, W. T. Grant Foundation Senior Program Officer Jenny Irons described how the Institutional Challenge Grant program supports universities in building sustained research-practice partnerships that will reduce inequality in youth outcomes. Grant recipient Alicia Sasser Modestino from Northeastern University described how the funding has enabled a lasting partnership with The City of Boston’s Department of Youth Engagement and Employment, and created a number of organizational change efforts within the university aimed at building a supportive infrastructure and changing what it means to be a “successful researcher” at the university. 

While these grants are intended specifically to enable research-practice partnerships, the institutional changes they create will more broadly enable researchers to participate in HIBAR projects, as well as other forms of community-engaged research. We are delighted to share this inspirational funding initiative with the HIBAR Research Alliance community as part of our webinar series.

Key Takeaway Messages

Successful changes within academic departments can catalyze broader institutional change.

For a change effort to succeed, it is important to identify and act upon the levers for change.

Research teams may find it surprisingly challenging to convey what societal impact looks like for the problem they are addressing.

Many faculty members benefit greatly from ongoing coaching for building effective relationships with external partners.

Building and sustaining an effective research relationship takes a great deal of time.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speakers

Jenny Irons

William T. Grant Foundation

Jenny Irons is a Senior Program Officer at the William T. Grant Foundation, where she leads the Institutional Challenge Grant program and the major grants funding initiative to support research on reducing inequality among youth. She serves on the Foundation’s senior program team, which sets program directions, develops new initiatives, and reviews grants. 

Alicia Sasser Modestino

Northeastern University

Alicia Sasser Modestino is an Associate Professor with appointments in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, where she also serves as the Research Director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

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The USF Pandemic Response Research Network

The USF Pandemic Response Research Network

Lessons Learned through a Highly Integrative Basic and Responsive Research (HIBAR) Approach to COVID-19

December 2022

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the significant threats that pandemics pose to all aspects of our lives, including physical and mental health, economics, education, environment, public policy, and communication. Given the complexity, diversity, and speed of these global impacts, governments, institutions, and individuals must collectively develop and implement multidisciplinary and timely approaches to mitigate them. Universities provide a critical asset for addressing pandemic mitigation, as these institutions possess broad intellectual capital that can be leveraged to guide national and global responses.

Universities across the world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways, implementing a variety of strategies that link disciplinary expertise with specific societal needs. The University of South Florida took a unique and effective approach, by adapting a rapid response research network concept that essentially integrates HIBAR principles to address the wide-ranging aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The webinar speakers discussed the USF Pandemic Response Research Network (USF-PRRN), highlighting the HIBAR features of the network and how the USF-PRRN concept can be applied to other global challenges. They described:

  • USF’s initial leadership response to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Pandemic;
  • how USF leveraged its intellectual capital;
  • the formation of a HIBAR Pandemic Response Network;
  • how USF provided institutional incentives;
  • the long-term sustainability of the network;
  • the institutional return on investment; and
  • models for HIBAR research networks that can meet current emergent global challenges.

You can read more here about the USF Pandemic Research Response Network and how the concept can be applied to address other global challenges.

Key Takeaway Messages

When presented with a HIBAR research opportunity, faculty members will readily engage.

HIBAR research networks are powerful tools for enabling culture change.

HIBAR research networks enable long-term partnerships because they dynamically respond as the research evolves.

Through HIBAR research networks, faculty members discover colleagues who deeply share their interests.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speakers

Randy W. Larsen

Associate Dean for Research
College of Arts & Sciences

Sylvia Wilson Thomas

Interim Vice President
for Research & Innovation

Howard Goldstein

Associate Dean for Research
College of Behavioral & Community Sciences

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Breakthrough Strategies to Accelerate Team Research

Breakthrough Strategies to Accelerate Team Research

Research leaders share key insights from HIBAR projects that are translatable to other research opportunities

April 2021

In this webinar, we heard from research leaders about complex and impactful projects, and initiated a dialogue to investigate if their key insights are translatable to other research opportunities. This joint webinar was hosted by the University of California Davis Office of Research.

Key Takeaway Messages

Be prepared to work outside your comfort zone.

Committed support by the university administration is key.

Universities are capable of responding very quickly to urgent societal needs.

Societal stakeholders must be involved in the research from the beginning.

It is essential for the research team to have a shared vision of the project goals.

We can apply these lessons to tackle other global challenges.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speakers

Dr. Richard Michelmore

University of California Davis

Dr. Ana Lucia Cardova-Kreylos

University of California Davis

Dr. Randy W. Larsen

University of South Florida

Dr. Sylvia Wilson Thomas

University of South Florida

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Building a Durable HIBAR Infrastructure

Building a Durable HIBAR Infrastructure

Enabling a platform for HIBAR research projects designed for collaborative research, teaching and advocacy

October 2020

Dr. Fonna Forman, Director of the Center on Global Justice at the University of California San Diego, shared her experience in building a durable infrastructure for HIBAR projects, specifically focusing on developing the long-term partnerships that are essential for success.

Dr. Forman’s experience stems from work during the past decade to create the UCSD Community Stations, a network of field hubs located in disadvantaged neighborhoods on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border, designed for collaborative research, teaching and advocacy among university researchers, school districts, and community-based non-profit partners. She described how the community members and researchers have developed long-term relationships through which trust has built as a result of being a constant positive presence in each other’s lives. This established trust network has enabled a platform for HIBAR research projects focusing on key issues such as climate vulnerability, educational disparities, and health disparities. In addition to direct, tangible solutions to specific challenges, these projects have the potential to lead to policy changes that enact lasting positive change in the communities by building capacity for political and social advocacy.

The Center on Global Justice (CGJ) at UC San Diego was launched in 2012 to advance interdisciplinary research on poverty and global development, with an emphasis on collective action at community scale.  The CGJ is home to initiatives focused on global ethics and cooperation (the conventional terrain of global justice), but the majority of the center’s initiatives localize the global, focusing on real-word intervention at local scale, in partnership with non-profits, government agencies, and civic stakeholders—top-down and bottom-up.

Key Takeaway Messages

Long-term partnerships are developed from relationship networks based on trust and mutual respect.

The conventional academic research model is ineffective for addressing many societal problems.

Research teams need a support infrastructure to manage the complexity associated with addressing societal problems.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speaker

Dr. Fonna Forman

UC San Deigo

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