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The HIBAR Research Alliance

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

Webinar Takeaways Grouped by Topic

These are the many key insights by our webinar speakers, gained by participating in HIBAR projects or participating in institutional efforts aimed at enabling more of this type of work. Click on the takeaway text or the “Play” icon beside the speaker(s) photo to watch the 1-minute Youtube video clip in a new tab.

Scroll through all of the takeaways below, or jump to a specific category by clicking on the label here:

Aligning incentives to enable HIBAR projects

Jennifer Renick

Funders can accelerate universities’ efforts to broaden faculty reward systems.

It can be difficult to imagine a different promotion and tenure system.

Promotion and tenure reform requires champions at all levels.

Faculty members want to do the right thing, but often struggle to do so.

The intent of promotion reform is to remove a disconnect by rewarding faculty for efforts that the university already values.

Administrators can accelerate change efforts by signaling their support, loudly and often.

Administrators are very often open to new ways of doing things.

The value of co-led teams

Cross-sectoral diversity was powerfully important for conveying results to key audiences.

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

Co-leadership has been an essential component throughout the project

Getting to know a broad range of local stakeholders can, over time, lead to fruitful research collaborations.

Complexity and controversy can lead to a strong consensus.

Communities participating in co-production through HIBAR projects take pride in the positive outcomes.

Complex societal problems need cross-sectoral teams to address them.

Mutual respect, shared goals, and diverse perspectives often lead to new and impactful outcomes.

Establishing effective relationships

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

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

It is essential to nurture relationships with individual people who share enthusiasm for the project.

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

Take the time to learn what is truly of interest to potential research partners.

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

Sufficient time is needed to establish solid relationships.

A HIBAR project requires building bridges, not just grant proposals: bridges between academic disciplines, academia and industry, and professionals and citizens.

Communities co-leading HIBAR projects need to share equally in the benefits of the project outcomes.

When long-term, trusted relationships are established, they often lead to new HIBAR projects.

Partnerships are most effective if you can find individuals who share your passion for solving a problem.

The importance of communication

Effective approaches are needed to communicate with different groups of stakeholders.

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

Communication between experts in different disciplines is critical.

Anecdotes and stories can be powerful for motivating people in various ways.

Substantial and ongoing communication is needed to ensure that partners are truly engaged in the basic research aspects of the project.

Universities often offer communication training for faculty members.

It is vital for researchers to communicate effectively with societal stakeholders.

Strategies for maintaining functional conflict are essential.

It is important for academics to recognize that non-profit and community partners may need additional resources.

Strategies for organizational change

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

Substantive and lasting change requires changing the overall system and culture.

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

Intentionality and persistence are essential for successful change efforts.

It is important to evaluate the impact of institutional change efforts.

Successful changes within academic departments can catalyze broader institutional change.

Small wins add up if you are persistent.

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

Recruit allies who really care about the problem.

You can’t solve every problem at once.

It takes collective action to change an ecosystem.

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.

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.

The importance of institutional leadership support

Leadership vision and programmatic contributions from funding programs are essential to enable HIBAR projects.

Administrators can accelerate change efforts by signaling their support, loudly and often.

Administrators are very often open to new ways of doing things.

Committed support by the university administration is key.

Cultivating support as senior leadership changes within your organization can help sustain long-term partnerships.

The value of networks

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

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

Jennifer Renick

Institutional change efforts can be accelerated by sharing across peer networks.

Through networks, proponents of change efforts gain access to credible external champions.

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.

Developing infrastructure to enable HIBAR projects

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

Securing funding for HIBAR projects is challenging.

Even small funding amounts are valuable for building capacity for HIBAR research.

Building a strong HIBAR research foundation can enable new HIBAR projects to flourish.

Leadership vision and programmatic contributions from funding programs are essential to enable HIBAR projects.

Long-term funding commitments are often required to sustain the positive outcomes of community-based HIBAR projects.

Respectful approaches to data sovereignty are really important in HIBAR projects

Increased funding enables students to develop stronger cross-sectoral relationships.

HIBAR projects & the academic environment

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

The university environment offers greater intellectual and funding flexibility for HIBAR projects than the industrial environment.

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

There is a considerable appetite for broadening incentive systems to support societally-impactful research.

Faculty often label their research as “societally impactful” when inclusive definitions are used.

We can apply HIBAR lessons to tackle other global challenges.

There is growing support for public-private research partnerships tackling big challenges.

The research ecosystem is highly interconnected and self-reinforcing.

A culture change is needed for academic researchers to shift their focus to what society truly needs.

The time required to build trusted relationships is often not compatible with typical grant funding cycles.

Universities can support HIBAR projects by recognizing that they require more time and flexibility.

By emphasizing aligned values, organizations can create a supportive environment for HIBAR projects.

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

Enabling faculty members to participate in HIBAR projects

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

It is easier for later-career faculty to emphasize impact over publications.

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

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

Faculty members want to do the right thing, but often struggle to do so.

HIBAR research projects are often challenging in many ways, but they are immensely enjoyable and rewarding.

Many faculty members are excited to pursue new cross-sectoral collaborative projects.

HIBAR projects often lead to new projects that are unexpected.

Enabling graduate students to participate in HIBAR projects

Universities can, and should, support graduate students as change leaders.

New approaches to graduate student training are needed to better address the challenges facing society.

Make space for insights from PhD committee members from outside the discipline.

It is vital for universities to make space for graduate students to pursue HIBAR research.

Be more flexible about what defines an academic discipline.

It is important to involve people at different stages of their research careers in HIBAR projects.

Faculty members can help graduate students to connect with HIBAR projects.

Students benefit if they take initiative to build connections outside of academia.

Peer support is really valuable for students working on HIBAR projects.

Increased funding enables students to develop stronger cross-sectoral relationships.

Connection to a societal problem makes a research project more meaningful.

Designing and managing HIBAR projects

Effective approaches are needed to communicate with different groups of stakeholders.

Balance in team composition is needed for HIBAR projects to be agile and pivot quickly.

As a form of cross-sectoral partnership, universities can hire knowledgeable, experienced people from outside universities to co-lead HIBAR projects.

It is important to involve people at different stages of their research careers in HIBAR projects.

Developing a deep partnership with experts in at least one external organization is critical to the success of a HIBAR project.

It is easier to maintain the enthusiasm of the research team for the duration of a long-term project if it can be structured as a series of smaller projects with specific achievable goals.

Be prepared to work outside your comfort zone.

With good project design, academic rigor and practicality are compatible.

Develop guiding principles and a broad framework for your work.