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 Speakers

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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