writing a research impact statement

The Research Whisperer

Just like the thesis whisperer – but with more money, the prickly impact statement.

Wade’s PhD research focused on how and why universities and academics engage with communities.

This is Wade’s personal website and he tweets from @wadekelly .

Multiple times a year I provide impact statement workshops. Not everyone can make those, so rather than having that knowledge only live in the workshop space, I thought I’d highlight some of the main take-aways shared during that workshop here.

While I’m based in Australia and tailor a lot of my advice to Australian frameworks, this post has relevance for any researcher who is trying to write a research impact statement. If you’re not sure what is meant by research impact, my earlier post about the emerging impact landscape may be helpful.

Increasingly, impact statements are integrated into funding applications. The impact statement should be a standalone snapshot of your project. Impact statements may go by other names — for example, the Australian Research Council’s National Interest Test could be considered an impact statement — but they are essentially asking researchers to provide the same components.

Impact statements are a genre of writing and, once you have a handle on the components that make up a persuasive impact statement, they’re much less daunting to generate.

Types of impact statements

Retrospective — the impact, and how it was generated, from a previous project

Prospective — what you’re planning to do to generate impact for a proposed project

It’s important that you know what your funder is asking for. Some funders want to ensure that you have a firm plan in place to generate impact for a proposed project. Others want proof that you know how to generate impact because you have in the past.

Both retrospective and prospective impact statements have the same components; the tense is just different (e.g., “we did” vs. “we will”). To simplify things a little, we’ll stick with prospective impact for statements for the rest of the post.

Impact Statement Components

At the simplest level, there are five components that make a strong impact statement: problem, solution, beneficiaries, outputs, and impact .

The problem statement needs to be high-level, clear, and simply stated. This is the ‘why’ of the research, not just the ‘what’. Problem statements can be stated in the negative (e.g. “childhood obesity is an epidemic”) or as a positive (e.g. “our project will reduce childhood obesity”). In the latter, the reviewer fills in the gap and goes, “Ah yeah, this is a project about childhood obesity.” If you’re having difficulties getting started, ask yourself, “Why is my research needed?”. Pretend you’re explaining it to someone you meet around a campfire or at a barbeque.

This section tends to pose the greatest challenge to researchers when crafting a persuasive impact statement. My suspicion is that researchers know too much about their topic and have difficulty articulating succinctly what the problem is for a generalist audience. Remember, expert reviewers are experts in their subject, not always yours.

In this section, you talk about your proposed solution to the problem. This is where you discuss the research you want to do. Remember to align your proposed solution to the problem statement. There should be a cause and effect relationship here — because this thing is an issue, we’re going to do this . Some grants have multipage impact statements but usually it’s a fairly small space so keep it short, succinct, and high-level.

An issue I often see with this section is that researchers rehash what they have written in other sections of the application. Don’t copy and paste. Start fresh and try not to get too bogged down in the details. You might mention that you will use interviews, but you don’t need to delve into sampling criteria, which generally belongs elsewhere.

Beneficiaries

Reviewers want to know that you have a clear sense of who is going to be interested in using your research findings. The more concrete your beneficiaries can be, the better. If you can name project partners, name them. If you can say how they will be involved in the project, do.

Saying that your research will benefit the public won’t cut it. It’s just too vague. Indicating that your work, for example, “will benefit young males between the ages of 18-25 by working with x, y, and z organisations,” is much more persuasive.

Outputs could be anything; a website, educational resource, videos, pamphlets, workshops, etc. The outputs are how you will get from research results to impact. Impact doesn’t just magically happen so lead the reader on a journey of how you’ll work with beneficiaries and stakeholders to make it happen.

This is another area that researchers seem to struggle with or haven’t though through fully. I suspect it’s because outputs happen after research results so it’s sometimes difficult to conceptualise what forms the outputs may take. Be that as it may, reviewers want to know that you’ve thought through how you will mobilise results into practice.

Often, the stated impact is only a sentence or two. It’s what all your activities will ideally culminate in. It could be an impact on policy, culture, health/wellness, the environment, and/or the economy. If your research is adopted into practice, what will that look like? What will the impact be?

Again, compelling specificity is the key. Lines like, “the impact will be on policy by working with policymakers” are anaemic and won’t convince reviewers that you have a clear sense of how to generate impact. What policymakers are you going to work with? What policy are you looking to impact? There are many posts about impact and policy, including Analysts, advocates and applicators , From science to action , and The hard labour of connecting research to policy during COVID-19 .

Putting it Together

In my workshops, I ask people to explain the elements of their impact statements and have others paraphrase it back. Often, when people hear the ways people interpret what they said, they find gaps in logic and issues with clarity.

You can do this exercise yourself as well. Pick up your phone, go to the memo app, and press record. Talk through, to yourself, each of the above impact statement components. Then go for a walk and listen to yourself. Listen a few times and you’ll start to hear where there are jumps in logic, where you have used jargon, where a reviewer might raise their eyebrows.

Write each of the sections above separately — one paragraph each — then stitch it together.

For my workshop, I invite participants to colour-code the impact statement components for their research.

Here’s a marked up example of text from the engagement and impact submission of this study about reforming youth mental health interventions :

You want to ensure that there’s a reasonable balance between each of the sections.

If 90% of the statement is the problem, or the solution, or the outputs, it’s out of balance. You need to make sure that each component is adequately addressed.

—————————-

My top tips for creating a great impact statement:

Don’t leave it until the end. The impact statement should be the first part of a grant you write, not the last.
Know your audience. Who is reviewing your statement?
Don’t oversell or undersell yourself. Reviewers are savvy.
Watch for jargon ! Expert panellists are only experts in their area.
Don’t undersell your engagement work in the community, industry, etc. Engagement can lead to impact .
Name your stakeholders if possible.
Record yourself outlining your project. Then write it out. This can give you a quick start on your impact statement.
Engage someone who’s not in your discipline to review your statement.
Don’t be too precious with it. It’s a high level statement that can’t address every nuance of your project.

Writing Effective Impact Statements: Who Cares? So What?

Why impact statements.

Impact statements demonstrate how our work makes a difference in the lives of people, communities, and the environment. Documenting the results of our efforts is also increasingly expected by funders and stakeholders. Those of us in the public sector identify and illustrate how our work makes a difference in our clientele’s economic, environmental, and social well-being through impact statements and impact reports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture asks land-grant universities to collect and submit information on "impacts" of teaching, research, and Cooperative Extension programs.

At the federal level, impact statements are shared with members of Congress and other key decision makers. In Virginia, impact statements are used to highlight the value of our work to the Congressional delegation, members of the Virginia General Assembly, and other supporters and stakeholders.

Impact reporting is important because it:

Helps us reflect on and improve our work.
Demonstrates the difference we make in people’s lives, communities, and the environment.
Improves visibility of programs (local, state, national).
Generates support.
Is a repository of results for speeches and other communication.
Helps us focus on issues, initiatives, and program themes.
Builds greater understanding of our programs by the public. Illustrates our accountability.

Impact reporting is important to land-grant faculty and staff because:

Good impact reports can enhance performance appraisal as well as promotion and tenure/continued appointment.
Stakeholders are asking for it.
It lessens urgent requests for program examples, etc.
Your work receives more visibility.
Your work is exposed to potential funders.
It can summarize and celebrate a job well done.

What is Impact?

Impact means the reportable and verifiable difference a land-grant program makes in the lives of people. Impacts are the documented results of a program, course, or research project.

Impact reporting:

Illustrates the importance of the land-grant effort.
Describes the positive change we make in social, economic, and environmental conditions in Virginia, the nation, and around the world.
Provides public accountability.
Increased income.
Increased productivity.
Value added.
Expected values of outcomes.
Alternative opportunity cost of capital.
Willingness to pay.
Multiplier effect.
Increased quality of life (health, education, etc.).
Non-market benefits (cost effectiveness, e.g.).
Values of indirect outcomes.
High rates of return on investment.
Provides teaching/learning, research/discovery, and extension and outreach/engagement program accountability.
Shows a return on investment.
Fosters better public understanding of the whole picture of teaching/learning, research/discovery, and extension and outreach/engagement.
Provides a reputation that improves future funding opportunities.
Increases awareness of programs within the institution.
Helps us reflect and learn from our work.

An impact statement is a brief summary, in lay terms, of the economic, environmental, and/or social impact of our efforts. It states accomplishments and their payoff to society by answering the questions:

Our impact audiences include:

State officials,
Federal officials,
Local governing bodies,
The general public,
External funding sources,
Industry representatives,
Alumni, and

These audiences have:

Some influence and control over our programs.
Want information for decision-making.
Have many people competing for their attention.
Want quantifiable differences brought about by investments in our programs.

Writing an Impact Statement

An impact statement:.

Briefly summarizes, in lay terms, the difference your teaching/learning, research/discovery, and extension and outreach/engagement efforts have made.
States accomplishment and creates strong support for programs.
Answers the questions... "So what?” and “Who cares?"
Conveys accomplishments in simple language free of technical jargon.
Is submitted by faculty for three to five efforts each year.

Audience for impact statements:

Your impact audience is the public: local, state, and federal officials, your peers, external grantors, and industry representatives. Keep in mind that both basic and applied studies have impacts.

Impact statements follow a simple formulaI:

Why are we doing this teaching/learning, research/discovery, and extension and outreach/engagement program?
What needs were expressed?
What was the situation/problem, and why was it a problem?
What college initiative and/or Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) planned program is addressed?
What did you do?
What were the key elements?
Who was the target audience?
What resources were expended?
The impact of your works is in the answer to the question "What is the payoff socially, economically, and environmentally?"
What knowledge was gained?
What skills were increased?
What practices/behavior changed? How many people changed?
How much money was saved?
Were policies changed as a result?
What were the end results (quantitative and qualitative)
How was evidence collected to document the impacts (surveys, observation, etc.)?
What was the scope of the impact (campus, regional, statewide, etc.)
List collaborators or contributors.
Your name and contact information.

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Five Essential Tips for Writing an Impact Statement

An impact statement is a short, convincing explanation of how your project can have a positive effect on a larger community. Impact statements are often used to support work that is being proposed, and might be included in a grant application, a dissertation proposal, an application for a faculty position, a presentation to corporate executives or potential investors, etc.

Other impact statements describe work that is particularly or fully complete, and are used to justify continued support and to generate publicity. For example, many funding agencies and companies require progress reports every year or every quarter. Universities use impact statements to promote ongoing projects, attract potential students, and solicit donations. Policy makers—including politicians—use these reports to show that public resources are being used for projects that benefit the public good.

Competition for funding and institutional support is often intense, so an effective impact statement can make the difference between enthusiastic financial support and a cancelled project. Here are five tips for writing an effective impact statement. For simplicity, the focus is on writing about proposed work, which is described using future tense (e.g. "We will identify . . ."). To write about completed work, you would simply shift to past tense (e.g. "We identified . . . ").

1. Keep it simple

Impact statements are typically about 1 page long, and rarely longer than 2 pages. Writers should focus on being concise and memorable, rather than being excessively detailed. Your goal is to clearly and convincingly describe: (A) The problem you are trying to address. (B) How you plan to address that problem. (C) Who might benefit from this research. (D) How they might benefit from this research.

The range of worthwhile research projects is immense. Some projects have very obvious impacts, for example:

Problem: Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, with only 4% of patients surviving 5 years after diagnosis.
Plan: Our study will analyze blood samples from first degree relatives of pancreatic cancer patients, in an effort to identify molecular markers of pancreatic cancer that can be used for early detection.
Who benefits: Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the USA and leads to an estimated 227,000 deaths per year worldwide. Many of the risk factors are associated with modern life: smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and a high-fat diet.
How they benefit: Among pancreatic cancer patients, survival is better when the disease is diagnosed before it has metastasized out of the pancreas, since surgical removal is still possible. Unfortunately, 80-85% of patients are currently diagnosed after the cancer has already spread. By identifying molecular markers of pancreatic cancer, at-risk individuals can be screened regularly, diagnosed earlier, and live longer.

Other research projects will have less obvious impacts, so it may be useful to combine the discussion of who benefits and how they benefit:

Problem: Nearly 100 years ago, dark matter was first proposed to explain anomalies in the movement of galaxies, and is now thought to make up 80% of the matter in the universe. However, we still do not know what dark matter is.
Plan: Our project would apply a new technology to the search for axions, which are one of the leading candidates for dark matter. Axions have not yet been proven to exist, but are thought to be billions to trillions of times smaller than an electron. This minuscule size means that extremely sensitive techniques are needed to detect faint axion signals.
Who benefits and how they benefit: This project may provide humans with extraordinary new insight into the very composition of the universe. Even if that goal is not fully realized, this project will pave the way for new technologies that are likely to advance scientific research and improve daily life in ways that are difficult to predict.

2. Know your audience

Impact statements are written for people who are not specialists in your field. Therefore, you should focus on the "big picture," and avoid unnecessarily technical details and jargon. Different audiences will have different backgrounds and perspectives. While your proposed project may remain the same, it's often a good idea to take a slightly different angle for different audiences.

If your intended audience consists of other researchers reviewing your grant application, you don't need to spend much time explaining how basic research in fruit flies provides insight that can then be used to understand more complex animals including humans. However, you should explain this concept clearly when writing a statement that might be included on a university website.

Some groups—including the National Science Foundation (USA) and university donors—want to support research activities that also improve science education and increase minority representation in the sciences. Therefore, it would be wise to emphasize how your project would provide additional research opportunities at your institution, which has a large population of first-generation college students.

Carefully review the priorities of the organization to which you are applying, or the group you are representing. These priorities are often clearly described in the instructions provided to authors, or on the organization website. Then customize your impact statement for that group. As an example, let's consider a psychologist who studies how children recover from trauma. When writing for an organization with a global focus, the psychologist might emphasize how the research can help children in refugee camps. When writing for an organization that focuses on the USA, the emphasis might be on how the same research can help children who have been traumatized by gun violence.

3. Be specific when discussing impact

While academics are accustomed to thinking about traditional academic achievements (grants, publications, tenure, etc), the impact statement requires you to consider how your work will benefit the larger community.

Here are some areas that funding agencies want to impact (with examples):

Society (e.g. consequences of increased social isolation)
Public policy (e.g. effect of age limits on handgun purchases)
Health (e.g. treatments for dementia)
Technology (e.g. improvements in speech to text technology)
Environment (e.g. optional price point for electric cars)
Law (e.g. effect of cash bail on low income neighborhoods)
National security (e.g. study of domestic terrorist groups)
Commercial activity (e.g. weaknesses in the supply chain)

Being specific is essential. "My work will contribute to understanding climate change" is too vague and does not show a benefit beyond an increase in academic knowledge. More specific would be "My work will lead to a better understanding of how forest management in the Pacific Northwest should change in response to climate change. This will allow us to reduce the chances of catastrophic wildfires that can devastate communities and further exacerbate climate change."

When considering impact, keep in mind that some funding agencies place high value on educational benefits, including work that would:

Promote teaching, training, and learning
Increase public engagement with science and technology
Enhance infrastructure for research and education
Broaden participation of under-represented groups
Strengthen partnerships between academia, industry, and others

4. Name your collaborators

For some research projects, broader impacts may largely be achieved through traditional channels. For example, new findings in inorganic chemistry are presented at conferences and published in academic journals, thereby reaching many of the people who can use that information in additional research. Even in these cases, you should name your collaborators and briefly describe what they will be contributing to the project. For example, "Two new graduate students will be contributing to the research. Dr. S.M. Lee, director of the high-resolution electron microscopy facility at nearby State University, will provide guidance on preparing the samples."

In other cases, implementing broader impacts will require the expertise of people outside your field. In these cases, it is absolutely imperative to show that you understand how the desired change can be implemented, and have already started discussions with people who can help make it happen. For example, "The decision to focus on nonverbal adults was made after discussions with T.W. Lopez, who is the programming director at the local senior center. The trial program would occur there, and county funding is available to expand the program to other centers if it is shown to be effective."

5. Use numbers to describe impact

Use numbers to describe the potential impact of your work. It is often useful to describe the number of potential beneficiaries in ever increasing circles. For example, "The trial program would occur at the local senior center with an expected 20-30 participants. If shown to be effective, county funding is available to expand the program to 10 other senior centers serving a total of 400 nonverbal adults. Additional research will determine if this method is effective for nonverbal children, including those on the autism spectrum. This could benefit the estimated 1200 children on the autism spectrum that receive education and therapy through the county.

You want the readers of your impact statement to be impressed and inspired by your proposed work, and convinced that it can lead to positive change. The affected community can be as small as a tiny school, or as large as the entire world.

Impact Statements

Impact statements are increasingly common in funding applications. These statements typically consist of five components:

Beneficiaries
Impact

The problem needs to be articulated clearly and succinctly, explaining why the research is important in simple language for non-experts. The proposed solution should be described in a cause-and-effect relationship and be concise, general, and fresh. Beneficiaries , including partners and stakeholders, should be specific. Outputs should be explained using a narrative approach to show how you’ll work with them to deliver impact. The proposed impact should be described briefly and include specific details.

To write a strong impact statement , it’s recommended to draft it first in the grant writing process:

Understand your audience to focus on key information,
Keep content high-level and meaningful,
Ensure all statements can be supported by evidence,
Use clear and simple language,
Balance the sections adequately,
Engage with stakeholders,
Name all beneficiaries and stakeholders,
Outline your project first, and
Have a reviewer from outside your research field.

By following these tips, you can create a clear and compelling impact statement that highlights the significance of your research and its potential impact on society.

For more information see Kelly, W. (2021, June 1). The Prickly Impact Statement. The Research Whisperer .

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Creating Powerful Impact Statements

Why are powerful impact statements needed.

Good science gets projects funded; powerful impacts get programs reauthorized. Learn to write impact statements that are useful and memorable from these narrated PowerPoint presentations.

Creating Powerful Impact Statements

This is an overview of the importance of creating powerful impact statements, with attention to drawing funder attention to your work.

Ties to Logic Model

Once you’ve written a program or project logic model, half the work of documenting the impact of your work is done. From the problem to the outcomes, this presentation shows those relationships as you create a concise and memorable impact statement. Learn about the distinctions among short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes. Interpretation of outcomes is impact.

Writing for the Average Voter

Does your writing style reduce the memorability of your impact statement? This file will help you understand the impact of vocabulary, units, and voice on reading comprehension level. If your program area focuses on youth, family or community systems, you may benefit from a brief introduction to social return on investment.

Tips for Creating Funder-Useful Impact Statements

Tips for Creating Funder Useful Impact Statements. A one page pdf pointing out some of the most common errors when faculty write impact statements.

Twitter in Ten Minutes

What is Twitter? Why Tweet? Learn how to drive your audience to learn more about your research using Twitter.

Powerful Impact Resources

SOARS Impact Statement Template
Output Outcome Definitions CRIS
Glossary of Impact Terms - If you have a vocabulary problem: this pdf is for you.
REEport template

Video: Impact Blues

Need a lift? Gain some insights about the difference between “impact” and “attribution”. Professional evaluator Terry Smutlyo sings a song about impact during an outcome mapping workshop. (Video)

Video: Aha! moments in program evaluation: Surveys

What are some key take-home messages in designing a survey? Here are some handy tips shared in a conversation between Molly Engle, Evaluation Specialist, and Linda Brewer, Senior Faculty Research Assistant of OSU Extension. This is the first in a series of video blogs from the OSU Extension Service on Program Evaluation.

Video: Aha! Moments in program evaluation: Needs Assessment What is the problem to solve? What is the gap between two conditions? How will you address it? What if you don't address the problem? Molly Engle, Evaluation Specialist in OSU Extension and Sam Angima, Regional Administrator in OSU Extension, have an insightful conversation about the needs assessment process.

Excel for Evaluation

Excel is a great tool for data analysis--if you know how to use it. The Excel for Evaluation videos to show beginner- and intermediate-level Excel users how to analyze data. Each video is 1-4 minutes long and uses examples from real evaluation projects.

LOGIC MODEL RESOURCES

A) wisconsin logic model.

The Wisconsin Logic Model is at the center of University of Wisconsin-Extension program development and is referred to widely. You will find many resources located here, in particular, the graphic of the Program Action-Logic Model is helpful for visualizing inputs, outputs and outcomes.

B) Key Considerations for Development of Logic Models

Logic models are a popular format to illustrate a program, or aspects of a program, to aid in program planning, implementation, or evaluation. This tool will help you visualize and prepare to build an effective logic model.

Reporting Examples for 5 Extension Work Areas

Agriculture
Family and Community

Literature Citations

These are pdf documents created for specific training presentations. No attempt has been made to keep them up to date.

Understanding program development and evaluation
Measuring and Reporting Web-Based Media Impacts
Measuring and Reporting Environmental Impacts
Measuring and Reporting Economic Impacts
Measuring and Reporting Social Impacts

Useful websites for creating memorable impact statements

Plainlanguage.gov -A website by the United States Federal government that gives some useful strategies and examples in using plain language.
Grammar Girl -A website that provides some basic tips and tricks to clarify your writing. Not for cognitive access per se, but elements can be useful in UD.
Creative Commons -Here you can find free pictures that you can use, often with attribution, to illustrate your work and writing.
Wholonomy's Flexible Thinking and Action Planning Tool

Honing your presentation skills

Video: made to stick: presentations that stick.

Make your presentations as memorable as an urban legend. Dan Heath, co-author of “Made to Stick,” gives you three minutes of advice on presenting ideas for maximum memorability.

35 Top Presentation Books

If you're interested in the most effective books regarding creating presentations, 21 of these focus on content and delivery, 14 focus on visuals. You don't have to invent the wheel.

Guidance from NIFA for Outcome Writing

In response to the demand for general guidance from diverse audiences on how to improve their outcome writing, NIFA has prepared a presentation outlining such guidance. This presentation is intended to be generic enough that it can be shared amongst various colleagues and partners and span multiple disciplines. You will note that some screenshots are from the POW system, but they are generic in that they are not labeled as such and simply list indicators and outcome statements.

2021 Workshop

Multistate Project Impact Handouts

So What? Writing an Impact Statement

First Online: 26 April 2023

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After completing this exercise, the learner will be able to convey the impact of their research clearly and concisely to a wider audience. Learners will be able to determine the appropriate language to use when communicating by considering the purpose of the communication event. They will also develop an understanding of what it means to communicate research outcomes with intent.

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Communicating Research Findings

Authentic Use of Hattie’s Meta-analyses to Frame Educational Research: a Researcher’s Reflection

Beware the Simple Impact Measure: Learning from the Parallels with Student Engagement

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Hunter, N. (2023). So What? Writing an Impact Statement. In: Rowland, S., Kuchel, L. (eds) Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2_45

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Writing a Strong Broader Impacts Statement

Image: a public presentation of research in the James B Hunt Jr Library

Identifying what to do as part of the broader impacts of your research can be difficult. Your work might have a clear and easy-to-articulate way of contributing to the public good, or you might need to call out additional projects to benefit society that will also be supported by the grant. It can be helpful first to review NSF’s societally desired outcomes and identify the outcomes that your research already contributes to—such as workforce training or the participation of underrepresented groups—as well as which outcomes you have a personal interest or ability in. From there you can begin to identify potential collaborators who could help further develop and refine your ideas. Reaching out to collaborators and your project development officer early in the proposal writing process can help make your broader impacts statement stronger and easier to write.

Start Early

Ideally broader impacts are developed as an integrated part of the research and in tandem with the rest of the proposal. That doesn't always happen, but it is good to start thinking about them early. For one thing, identifying and connecting with potential collaborators early on means that you'll have an expert on the team who can help you design impactful programs and activities, tell you what the best form of assessment might be, and reduce the guesswork on the budget.

Make it Specific

Reviewers and granting agencies will definitely be asking the same hard questions of the broader impacts statement as they do of the rest of the proposal. The more detail provided the easier it is to answer those questions. Knowing the target audiences and anticipating the scale of any events, having clearly articulated and measurable goals that relate back to the desired societal outcomes, and having plans for implementation and assessment will help. There is an expectation that broader impacts activities will be supported with relevant citations of current research and best practices, as are the research portions of the proposal.

Follow Through

It’s important to plan realistically for broader impacts activities. You will need to report results from your broader impacts activities to your project officer and in annual reports. If you collaborate with someone who can study the design and outcomes of your broader impacts activities, consider opportunities to publish. You'll also be building expertise and experience to strengthen your next proposal.

Broader Impacts Statement Pitfalls

Avoid the following pitfalls in your broader impacts plan:

An education component that is generic and expected of a PI in your field anyway, such as mentoring graduate students.

An education activity that is unrealistic or seems to be overreaching. Statements like "will impact K-12 education in the state" need to be genuinely supported with specifics or reviewers might think that the project won't deliver.

An outreach deliverable that just reinvents the wheel. Another blog or web page with no clearly developed and unique deliverable or function can be dismissed as standard by reviewers.

An education and research plan that are two parallel lines and will never connect. If the broader impacts statement feels tacked on reviewers will think it is not being taken seriously.

An education or outreach plan that lacks understanding of effective education practices. Just as a research plan that doesn't seem aware of current developments in the field would raise some flags, a broader impact statement that doesn't consider what would be an effective communication approach could run into trouble. This is where collaborators can help—there are people on campus who can give you expert advice.

Focusing only on education. On an academic campus it's easy to think of education first and stop there, but remember that the enhancement of infrastructure; collaboration across academia, government, and industry; and the inclusion of underrepresented groups are desired societal outcomes too.

Activities that have no feedback loop. Saying that you will host a workshop is good, but describing how that workshop will inform and refine your research is better.

On the whole, reviewers will be looking for every indication of serious implementation, use, and consideration, as well as integration between the broader impacts and the intellectual merit.

For more information or assistance, contact us .

The ARIS Broader Impacts Toolkit includes resources to help you create effective projects and write a successful proposal.

NSF 101: Five tips for your Broader Impacts statement

Skrip, M.M. (2015), Crafting and evaluating Broader Impact activities: a theory-based guide for scientists . Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment , 13: 273-279.

See our Broader Impacts Resources page for examples.

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NSF 101: Five tips for your Broader Impacts statement

How does your research impact society? Scientists and engineers funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation are accountable to taxpayers for conducting research, and collectively moving their research beyond the lab to impact the public good, thereby benefitting the economy, society and discovery itself. This is what NSF defines as "Broader Impacts."

The Broader Impacts statement is a critical component of any research proposal submitted to NSF. Broader impacts strengthen the relationship between the science community and society. Take for example the work of Ayanna Howard , the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Professor and Chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, whose work with artificial intelligence-powered robots inspires children of all ages and abilities to fall in love with STEM and represents this important engagement between research and society. Another example is the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Innovation in Information Technology study in which an infographic was created to visually tell the story of how computer science and engineering researchers partnered with industry to develop billion-dollar industries over many decades.

Here are five tips from NSF program officers to help you with your Broader Impacts statement.

1. Do your homework .

The NSF Proposal and Award Policies & Procedures Guide , and the 2011 National Science Board report on Merit Review Criteria outline how broader impacts come from your research:

" Broader impacts may be accomplished through the research itself, through activities that are directly related to specific research projects, or through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to, the project. NSF values the advancement of scientific knowledge and activities that contribute to the achievement of societally relevant outcomes."

The guide provides nine examples of potential outcomes that might align with your research. Note that this is not a checklist, and your Broader Impacts statement is not limited to these outcomes, nor do you need to focus on all of them:

Full participation of women, persons with disabilities and underrepresented minorities in STEM.
Improved STEM education and educator development at any level.
Increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology.
Improved well-being of individuals in society.
Development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce.
Increased partnerships between academia, industry and others.
Improved national security.
Increased economic competitiveness of the U.S.
Enhanced infrastructure for research and education.

There is a common misconception among applicants that broader impact "activities" must be a separate add-on to the research activities, but this is not necessarily the case. NSF's Perspectives on Broader Impacts includes additional insights that might inspire your own ideas.

Finally, the Dear Colleague Letter from NSF's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate provides useful tips for everyone on how to fit your work into a structured framework to better clarify your Broader Impacts statement.

2. Seek additional resources.

Look at online resources created by professional societies, universities and nonprofits. The NSF-funded ARIS website provides up-to-date information on broader impacts. Also, have an open discussion with your colleagues about how your research impacts society, and check with your own institution if they have resources to help you develop your Broader Impacts statement.

3. Align your statement with your interests, expertise and community needs.

Each discipline impacts society differently. Your research may inherently contribute to societally relevant outcomes, or you may propose activities that are related or complementary to your research such as educational activities, building a diverse research team, or public stargazing gatherings at a research telescope.

For examples of initiatives in your research area, you can look through recently funded awards using NSF’s awards search , and select the program to which you’re submitting. You can also reach out to your program officer with any questions.

4. Know the difference between "broader impacts" and "broadening participation."

While they are related, they are not the same thing. Broadening participation is an important element which falls under broader impacts and aims to include scientists from underrepresented groups and institutions, thereby fostering collaboration among diverse social groups and leading to innovation.

While broadening participation might be a key component of your Broader Impacts statement, is not necessarily a required component. Also, it is likely not the only societal impact of your project. For more information, visit NSF's Broadening Participation webpage which includes activities, reports and impacts.

5. Know your audience.

Grant reviewers will evaluate your Broader Impacts statement on these five criteria:

What is the potential for the proposed activity to benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes? Identify the intended community and match your strategy. For example, if you propose an open-access tool that focuses on one part of society, then ensure your tool is appropriate for that audience. If you are planning for outreach at elementary schools, you will need to package your research into products children can understand.
To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original or potentially transformative concepts? Instead of starting from scratch, perhaps your research can build on known approaches. You may be able to have a greater impact by plugging into existing structures on your campus. Describe how you will expand on known, effective strategies and cite examples of successful ones. For example, hands-on, project-based learning enhances student performance, increases motivation and engagement, and develops critical thinking. So, you might create a teaching module around your research concepts that uses these best practices.
Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized and based on sound rationale? Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success? Develop your Broader Impacts plan in the same way you develop the rationale for your research activities, including an evaluation plan. For example, how will you gauge the success of engaging an elementary school audience?
How well qualified is the individual, team or institution to conduct the proposed activities? Play to your strengths. If you have a talent for creating games, perhaps you could create a game about a food web that exemplifies your research on the interaction of different animal species. Similarly, what collaborations could strengthen your team? Perhaps someone in your education department could be a great collaborator.
Are there adequate resources available to the principal investigator (either at the home institution or through collaborations) to carry out the proposed activities Make sure to describe what resources you have, and make sure you budget for costs related to your broader impacts activities.

The Broader Impacts statement is a critical component of any research proposal submitted to NSF, so make sure you consider this while you are developing your research plan, and not after. Understanding how to impact society through research is important for building trust with the communities we serve.

By Tammy Wilbert, Ph.D. and Vincent Tedjasaputra, Ph.D.

NSF 101: EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program

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Graduate School Applications: Writing a Research Statement

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What is a Research Statement?

A research statement is a short document that provides a brief history of your past research experience, the current state of your research, and the future work you intend to complete.

The research statement is a common component of a potential candidate’s application for post-undergraduate study. This may include applications for graduate programs, post-doctoral fellowships, or faculty positions. The research statement is often the primary way that a committee determines if a candidate’s interests and past experience make them a good fit for their program/institution.

What Should It Look Like?

Research statements are generally one to two single-spaced pages. You should be sure to thoroughly read and follow the length and content requirements for each individual application.

Your research statement should situate your work within the larger context of your field and show how your works contributes to, complicates, or counters other work being done. It should be written for an audience of other professionals in your field.

What Should It Include?

Your statement should start by articulating the broader field that you are working within and the larger question or questions that you are interested in answering. It should then move to articulate your specific interest.

The body of your statement should include a brief history of your past research . What questions did you initially set out to answer in your research project? What did you find? How did it contribute to your field? (i.e. did it lead to academic publications, conferences, or collaborations?). How did your past research propel you forward?

It should also address your present research . What questions are you actively trying to solve? What have you found so far? How are you connecting your research to the larger academic conversation? (i.e. do you have any publications under review, upcoming conferences, or other professional engagements?) What are the larger implications of your work?

Finally, it should describe the future trajectory on which you intend to take your research. What further questions do you want to solve? How do you intend to find answers to these questions? How can the institution to which you are applying help you in that process? What are the broader implications of your potential results?

Note: Make sure that the research project that you propose can be completed at the institution to which you are applying.

Other Considerations:

What is the primary question that you have tried to address over the course of your academic career? Why is this question important to the field? How has each stage of your work related to that question?
Include a few specific examples that show your success. What tangible solutions have you found to the question that you were trying to answer? How have your solutions impacted the larger field? Examples can include references to published findings, conference presentations, or other professional involvement.
Be confident about your skills and abilities. The research statement is your opportunity to sell yourself to an institution. Show that you are self-motivated and passionate about your project.

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Example and Guide for Impact Statement

The impact statement should translate your experience detailed in the CV into a narrative for how the whole body of work has been valuable and impactful. Keep in mind this narrative should be accessible to a broad audience , thus be careful with overly technical or specific details and jargon. In this statement, you make your case for the impact of your work. The statement should address your perspective on past, present, and future performance and accomplishments. Avoid reiterating facts from your CV. The statement should be well-reasoned, well-elaborated, and well-written, and emphasize your primary areas of strength. You should get feedback from the department head and mentors on the statement before uploading it for review. Write to engage and be understood by both a general academic readership including college/school P&T committee, dean, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and President and by a professional readership comprised of the departmental and external reviewers. Be sure to explain critical terms or discipline specific information in a simple and clear way. Provide a narrative that puts your accomplishments in context

Convey what is exciting about your research, teaching, and service activities
Describe the innovative approaches or cutting-edge aspects of your work
Emphasize the broadest implications of your work
Highlight potentially hidden strengths
Address perceived weaknesses
Imagine your worst critics – use your statement to undermine their case
Be honest – acknowledge weaknesses, but demonstrate how you have overcome them
Explain gaps in your record – be your own spin doctor, contextualize the strategic choices of your career
An example: If you had a series of poor teaching evaluations for a period of time, you need to address it. If the teaching evaluations were poor early on, but improved with time, discuss what you did to overcome the challenges. How did you adjust your teaching methods to address the needs and/or concerns of the students? If your teaching evaluations were weak during a semester in which you were experimenting with a new course or new teaching method, what did you learn from the constructive feedback?
Make the case for contributing to the overall stature of your academic unit
Describe evidence that you are widely perceived as outstanding among peers
Explain the ways you are instrumental in advancing the academic needs of your unit
Explicitly address your contribution to strategic initiatives for your unit, college/school, and the university
Focus on value and impact of your efforts in all areas of responsibility

Research Statement

Describe how your strategy for conducting research or your approach to original creative work contributes to the quality of your efforts
Explain how your research is relevant to issues that relate to your field(s) of study
Elaborate about the ways your scholarship breaks new ground or how is it innovative
Make clear how your individual research projects contributed to your program of research, or how individual projects contributed to the focus of your original creative work.
Explain how your research shows promise for ongoing publication and external research funding (as applicable) = TRAJECTORY!
Reflect upon how the strategic decisions you made on publishing and presenting your work furthered your program of research/focus or original creative efforts
Specify the contributions you make within collaborative or team research projects, especially indicating ways in which you provide leadership and/or unique expertise and demonstrate you independence as investigator
That your research was featured or widely discussed in popular media may be documented in the dossier
Show integration between your research and other areas of responsibility
Explain the ways your class discussions or projects have been used to explore potential questions for your own research/original creative work (or vice versa)
Discuss how your service to professional associations has provided opportunities to further your program of research/focus of original creative work (or vice versa)
Recognize years in rank do not change the expectations of what is required; however, it is reasonable to expect there may be a shift in emphasis between criteria to reflect the many different individual professional careers
Describe the experiences that played a key role in your tenure case, if/when the experiences are of historical interest and can be used to document impact (citations, reviews, etc.)
Highlight evidence of an enhanced international/national reputation over time
Conference organization vs. presentation
Panel leader vs. member
Professional society board position vs. membership o Describe your leadership in research in the department, college/school, and university  Mentoring junior faculty about the research enterprise (e.g. reading manuscripts, grant-writing, networking within the discipline)

Teaching Statement

Address how your philosophy of, methods of, or assumptions about teaching is/are congruent with the typical needs of your students
Explain how you foster student achievement by balancing high standards for performance with appropriate levels of support
Discuss the ways in which your course content has contributed to the attainment of knowledge and skills needed by your students
Elaborate on how your course content, including instructional resources that you have developed, is congruent with current knowledge and professional practice
Address your involvement in course and curriculum development, as well as development of specializations, majors, distance learning programs, certificate programs, or degree programs. Specifically, how have these efforts contributed to the attainment of the knowledge and skills needed by our students. Further, how have these efforts advanced the academic needs of the unit
Elaborate on the ways your work in mentoring and academic advising contribute to the professional identities of your students and the development of their skills in research and practice
Show integration between your teaching and other areas of responsibility
How you have used your research to improve your instruction (courses, directed individual study, and supervised research)
How you have involved students in your research
How you used your professional association work to keep your courses up-to-date with current knowledge and practice
To specifically address teaching and Promotion to Full Professor: o Provide evidence of “next level” high-quality performance
Explain the ways you have invested significantly in improving and/or innovating within your teaching via any variety of technological improvements or cutting-edge pedagogical approaches
Describe your leadership in teaching in the department, college/school, and university
Discuss any mentorship of junior faculty about teaching best practices
Highlight student committee service
Elaborate how you have led within your department for course/curriculum conceptualization, design
Acknowledge speaking engagements to participate in a culture of teaching excellence

Service Statement

Relate how your service contributions relate to ongoing or emerging needs of the institution
Describe how your service contributions relate to ongoing or emerging needs of the profession
Address the ways your service work contributed to meeting needs identified in your community, state, nation, and other countries
Explain integration of your service with other areas of responsibility
How has your research expertise contributed to the work of your professional organization?
How has your research expertise contributed to being an editorial board member for a refereed journal or a federal grant review committee
How has your research expertise has been of service to, or supported the work of, your program, department, school, college/school, and university
Explain the ways your service today meets the greater expectations associated with being a senior faculty member
Committee chair vs. member
Professional society board position vs. membership
Officer in shared governance bodies at TAMU

Associate Professor in Information Science at Cornell and rotating Program Officer in Cyber-Human Systems at NSF.

July 8, 2013, by dan cosley | july 8, 2013, writing a research statement (for a tenure package).

tl/dr : Research statements should demonstrate that you have made or will make an impact through effective, clear storytelling about what you have done and how it connects to your research community. Careful organization and clear evidence of impact can help you make this case to the many different kinds of people who will read your statement.

One of the main docs you write as part of the tenure process is a research statement, and before revising mine, I wanted to spend some time thinking about what makes for an effective statement. We also write these during the job search and various other times during the career, so hopefully this post will have broad appeal. The thoughts below are based on my own thinking, talking with other professors, and looking at my own and other people’s past research statements for tenure [0].

We’ll start with a few key points up front. First, in line with the typical tenure and promotion criteria at research universities [1], a main goal of the statement is to demonstrate that your work has had, and will continue to have, an impact on your research community. So a glorified annotated bibliography of your work is not going to cut it. You need to talk about how your work fits into the broader conversation, why it’s interesting and exciting and important.

Second, as stated by Mor Naaman in a comment on my original tenure post , not everyone who reads your statement (or your dossier [2]) is going to be an expert in your field. So, a glorified annotated bibliography of your work is not going to cut it. Not only do you need to position your work in your community, you need to do this in a way that letter writers, your dean, and faculty across the university will appreciate.

Third, even for those who are experts, they’re not likely to be experts on you, meaning that your research statement has real impact on how and when people think about you [3]. So, a glorified… well, you get the picture, but the key insight here is that the research statement is telling a story about you just as much as it is about the research [4].

So, how do research statement writers go about accomplishing these goals? For the most part, what I saw was a lot of work around organizing the story and showing current impact in ways that was broadly accessible, but less on the questions of ‘so what’ and ‘what next’.

Organizing the story

Based on the statements I looked at, the general approach was to focus on some small number of broad topical themes that represent research questions or areas that people claim to make key contributors to. The work itself is used to illustrate the contributions, possibly with some sub-themes inside the area to help readers group the individual papers. Then, an overall story ties the areas together with some kind of bigger picture and/or longer-term research goals.

How broad the goals, themes, and sub-sections are depends in part on how long you’ve been in the game and how broad your interests are–which implies that your research statement will continue to evolve over time [5]. For instance, my fall 2007 job hunt statement and spring 2011 third year review statements are organized quite differently because I had another 3.5 years of deepening and broadening my work and thinking both on specific projects and on how the different strands tied together [6]. (I wrote a bit about this evolution in “ The Incredible Evolving Research Statement “, which is a reasonable companion to this post.)

Most of the statements were broadly chronological, especially within areas. I think this on balance was used to show the accumulation, evolution, and deepening of one’s own work in an area. Some (including mine), but not all, were also chronological across the areas, which as a reader I saw as illustrating the person’s career arc. None was comprehensive, and some work was left out; instead, the statements focused on telling a more or less coherent story [7].

There are other ways to tell the story of your research besides chronology plus research areas. For instance, I could imagine talking about my own work as a grid where levels of analysis (individual, dyad, group/community) are on one axis and major research area/question (recommendation, user modeling, system-building, reflection) is on the other [8], then positioning work in the grid cells. This would be particularly useful for showing breadth across a couple of intersecting areas, maybe for highlighting interdisciplinarity. If I wanted to emphasize my techy/system-building bits, I could imagine organizing the statement around the systems that I’ve built, supervised, and studies along the way, with research questions emerging as themes that repeatedly occur across the systems [9]. But the overall story plus themes and chronological evolution model feels both fairly common and effective, and I do like the 2011 version a lot — so I’m likely to do an update but not rework of it for the tenure package.

Showing (current) impact

Much of the discourse on this side focused on various forms of evidence that other people, mostly in the academic community, cared about the work.

Most folks worked in some mention of support for their work, notably grant funding. Funding is direct evidence that people think you and your work are interesting enough to spend money on [10]. Yes, this is in your CV, but so are many other things you’ll talk about in the statements, and yes, done to excess or done badly it could feel a little off-putting. But it is honest and valuable to acknowledge support and it is pretty easy to make it part of the story (e.g., “I received an NSF grant to help answer my questions around X”).

Likewise, everyone talked about collaborators and students they’ve worked with. Much as with grants, collaboration says people think you and your work are interesting enough to spend time on [11]. Further, to some extent we’re known by the company that we keep, and collaborating with good people reflects well on you. Again, done as an exercise in name-dropping this could be tedious, but again, it’s easy to work naturally into the conversation–and again, it’s a worthy and honest thing to point out that you had help along the way.

People also mentioned how the work connected to and through groups or workshops they organized, led, and contributed to that are directly related to their research [11a]. To some extent, this overlaps with the service statement , but as with direct collaboration, if people are willing to band together with you it shows that people value the kinds of work that you do and see you as a positive influence.

Some folks talked about citations, h-indices, and other citation metrics. Citations are a proxy for attention, interest, and quality in your work, both the particular work being cited and in your reputation more generally (because well-known and -regarded people are more likely to come to mind). There are some problems with quantitative metrics of scholarly impact: differing practices and sizes across fields affects numbers; not all citations are positive; to do it right you’d probably need to compare to peers’ citation activity; etc. But citations have some value as an indicator of impact [12]. It’s a little harder to weave this in naturally, though you can use the numbers to point out particularly impactful papers, or use the data to give an overview to make the case that your career as a whole has been noticed.

For the most part, those were the high points. I do want to point out that there are lots of other ways one might talk about making impact. I’ll pass the torch to Elizabeth Churchhill’s discussion of impact more generally that among other things riffs off of Judy Olson’s Athena award talk about the many paths to scholarly impact at CSCW 2012 . A group called altmetrics is pushing on other ways to think about impact, and other folks such as danah boyd [13] and Johnny Lee have carved careers out of making impact beyond research papers. These kinds of impact are worth talking about. However, for all that academia is pretty liberal politically, it’s fairly conservative in how it measures impact, and so a diversified portfolio with a fair percentage invested in traditional impact measures is probably less risky.

The statements didn’t have so much to say about potential future impact and work directly. There was sometimes a discussion of the next questions on a current line of work, and sometimes the overarching research question was used to highlight a general next line or lines. I guess this makes sense, because our next research moves are shaped by resources, people, contexts, and events [14], but it was a little surprising given the ‘future continued potential’ part of the tenure evaluation process.

Likewise, there was not as much “so what” as there probably could be, especially. There were reasonable connections to other work at a high level [15], to help make novelty claims and make the ‘so what’ case within the field. But there is much less of an argument about why the work is important to do in the grand scheme of things. This may be in part an artifact of length restrictions (there’s not a formal limit, but most of the tenure-time ones seem to clock in around 4-5 pages plus references). Our values around academic freedom also probably help us out when folks in other fields look at our tenure cases, even if they don’t see obvious indicators of importance, and our external letter writers are probably close enough to our work to appreciate it for its own sake. But I was still surprised at how little this was addressed in our statements.

So, that’s it for now–I should probably stop writing about writing research statements and get on to the business at hand. It was, however, useful spending some time thinking about what might make for a good research statement and hopefully some of this thinking will help future fellow travelers out.

[0] Web search turns up a variety of other useful resources and perhaps I should have just read them rather than writing my own. However, spending some time writing and analyzing myself felt valuable, and most of those I did find seem to be tuned toward research statements for the graduating PhD seeking a job rather than tenure. Many also seem to have been generated by searching for other articles about writing research statements. That said, this article on research statements from Penn’s career services looked useful and had pointers to some examples. Oregon Academic Affairs also has some thoughtful slides on writing tenure statements, including the research statement.

[1] Here’s an example of promotion guidelines from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences .

[2] Also part of Cornell ADVANCE’s “Successful Tenure Strategies” document .

[3] I haven’t been on a tenure committee yet, because you don’t get to vote on tenure cases until you have it, but for faculty hiring a number of recommendation letters look a lot like the candidate’s research statement or dissertation proposal/outline. I am guessing similar effects will happen for tenure letter writers.

[4] John Riedl often gave me talk advice that a key takeaway, in addition to the main points, should be that you’re awesome (not via self-aggrandizing–not John’s style–but through being interesting and demonstrating competence). It seems apropos here as well.

[5] Dan Frankowski , a research scientist at GroupLens when I was there, once claimed that the main thing we learn in grad school is how to tell bigger and better stories about the work.

[6] I made a followup post about how these statements evolved with some behind-the-scenes thinking, but this is already a pretty long post in its own right.

[7] It is fine to leave side projects out. A piece of career/tenure advice I have received from multiple sources is that it’s good to become known as “the X guy” for some very small number of X’s (often 1). Thus, focusing on the coherent and compelling story of ($1 to Richard Hamming) You and Your Research is probably best. Your side stuff will be in your CV and your online portfolio, and if people care about them and/or they’ve had an impact, you’ll get to talk about them.

[8] Joe Konstan sometimes talks about the grid as a useful way to organize a research story. For instance, for a dissertation you might try different items on the axes (levels of analysis, research questions, time periods, systems, theories, etc.), and think about a research path that cuts across a column, a row, or (to sample the space) a diagonal. If I were to do this for my tenure case, it feels like most of the cells should be filled in, at least some.

[9] Unless you’re in a clearly systems areas, though, focusing on systems runs the risk of pigeonholing you. You probably want to study recommender systems, not GroupLens; crisis informatics, not Katrina; collaboration, not Wikipedia; crowd work, not Mechanical Turk. I know that some people think of me as a “Wikipedia guy”, and that’s part of my story, but only part.

[10] The contrapositive is not true; if work isn’t funded, it still might be important and impactful. There are lots of ways to not get funding.

[11] Again, the contrapositive isn’t true; some disciplines and traditions value solo research more than my home area of HCI, and some people are just more comfy working alone and don’t seek collaborators.

[11a] Folks who are creating or colonizing quite new areas may find it useful to do a bunch of community-building through workshops, special issues, and the like to build and connect to fellow travelers.

[12] Here, unfortunately, the contrapositive is more plausible: you do want your work to be cited.

[13] Who has enough impact that, at least as I was writing this, if you typo her name to “danah body” Google will give you a “Did you mean: danah boyd”.

[14] FYI, although this is a true answer to kind of “Where do you see yourself in N years” question that you might get asked during a job interview, it is not a good answer. This I can attest from personal experience.

[15] Not many citations though, which was a little surprising, because that could both help ground the work and suggest appropriate tenure letter writers.

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11 Comments

Very helpful – thank you so much for taking the time to share this.

Welcome and hopefully it’s actually useful down the road. If so, feel free to share with your friends. 🙂

thanks a ton. Nice post, great for centering my mind around this daunting task! Merci! -Chris @whiteliesbook

Yeah, good point on making clear what the request is, and when it’s needed. A post on making effective requests would be pretty useful. slope game

Crafting a compelling research statement for the tenure process involves more than just presenting a glorified annotated bibliography. Your emphasis on demonstrating the impact of your work within the broader research community is crucial. The chronological organization of your research reminds me of the online help I got at https://customwriting.com/buy-research-paper resource where experts supported arguments by thematic areas, effectively illustrates the evolution and depth of your contributions. Incorporating evidence of impact, such as grant funding, collaboration, and workshops, adds a layer of validation that extends beyond the academic sphere. While future potential and the broader significance of your work could receive more attention, your insights into constructing an impactful research narrative are valuable for academics.

Writing a Research Statement is a pivotal task for academics and professionals alike. It encapsulates the essence of one’s scholarly pursuits, outlining objectives, methodologies, and anticipated outcomes. Crafting a compelling statement necessitates clarity, conciseness, and coherence. As scholars delve into their areas of expertise, they must articulate their contributions to the field and highlight their unique perspective. Considering the importance of research impact, a well-articulated statement can pave the path for academic success and recognition. Amidst the process, consulting resources like BrainStation reviews can offer valuable insights, aiding in refining the statement and ensuring its effectiveness in communicating the researcher’s vision and potential.

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Writing a Research Statement

What is a research statement.

A research statement is a short document that provides a brief history of your past research experience, the current state of your research, and the future work you intend to complete.

The research statement is a common component of a potential student's application for post-undergraduate study. The research statement is often the primary way for departments and faculty to determine if a student's interests and past experience make them a good fit for their program/institution.

Although many programs ask for ‘personal statements,' these are not really meant to be biographies or life stories. What we, at Tufts Psychology, hope to find out is how well your abilities, interests, experiences and goals would fit within our program.

We encourage you to illustrate how your lived experience demonstrates qualities that are critical to success in pursuing a PhD in our program. Earning a PhD in any program is hard! Thus, as you are relaying your past, present, and future research interests, we are interested in learning how your lived experiences showcase the following:

Perseverance
Resilience in the face of difficulty
Motivation to undertake intensive research training
Involvement in efforts to promote equity and inclusion in your professional and/or personal life
Unique perspectives that enrich the research questions you ask, the methods you use, and the communities to whom your research applies

How Do I Even Start Writing One?

Before you begin your statement, read as much as possible about our program so you can tailor your statement and convince the admissions committee that you will be a good fit.

Prepare an outline of the topics you want to cover (e.g., professional objectives and personal background) and list supporting material under each main topic. Write a rough draft in which you transform your outline into prose. Set it aside and read it a week later. If it still sounds good, go to the next stage. If not, rewrite it until it sounds right.

Do not feel bad if you do not have a great deal of experience in psychology to write about; no one who is about to graduate from college does. Do explain your relevant experiences (e.g., internships or research projects), but do not try to turn them into events of cosmic proportion. Be honest, sincere, and objective.

What Information Should It Include?

Your research statement should describe your previous experience, how that experience will facilitate your graduate education in our department, and why you are choosing to pursue graduate education in our department. Your goal should be to demonstrate how well you will fit in our program and in a specific laboratory.

Make sure to link your research interests to the expertise and research programs of faculty here. Identify at least one faculty member with whom you would like to work. Make sure that person is accepting graduate students when you apply. Read some of their papers and describe how you think the research could be extended in one or more novel directions. Again, specificity is a good idea.

Make sure to describe your relevant experience (e.g., honors thesis, research assistantship) in specific detail. If you have worked on a research project, discuss that project in detail. Your research statement should describe what you did on the project and how your role impacted your understanding of the research question.

Describe the concrete skills you have acquired prior to graduate school and the skills you hope to acquire.

Articulate why you want to pursue a graduate degree at our institution and with specific faculty in our department.

Make sure to clearly state your core research interests and explain why you think they are scientifically and/or practically important. Again, be specific.

What Should It Look Like?

Your final statement should be succinct. You should be sure to thoroughly read and follow the length and content requirements for each individual application. Finally, stick to the points requested by each program, and avoid lengthy personal or philosophical discussions.

How Do I Know if It is Ready?

Ask for feedback from at least one professor, preferably in the area you are interested in. Feedback from friends and family may also be useful. Many colleges and universities also have writing centers that are able to provide general feedback.

Of course, read and proofread the document multiple times. It is not always easy to be a thoughtful editor of your own work, so don't be afraid to ask for help.

Lastly, consider signing up to take part in the Application Statement Feedback Program . The program provides constructive feedback and editing support for the research statements of applicants to Psychology PhD programs in the United States.

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New Jersey Student Learning Standards

2023 njsls-ela writing domain anchor statements, writing: text types, responding to reading, and research.

The Writing anchor statements acknowledge the fact that whereas some writing skills, such as the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish, are applicable to many types of writing, other skills are more properly defined in terms of specific writing types: arguments, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. They stress the importance of the writing-reading connection by requiring students to draw upon and write about evidence from literary and informational texts. Because of the centrality of writing to most forms of inquiry, research standards are prominently included in this strand, though skills important to research are infused throughout the document.

(AW) Argumentative Writing

By the end of grade 12, write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

(IW) Informative and Explanatory Writing

By the end of grade 12, write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

(NW) Narrative Writing

By the end of grade 12, write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

(WP) Writing Process

By the end of grade 12, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, and publishing.

(WR) Writing Research

By the end of grade 12, conduct short as well as more sustained research projects, utilizing an inquiry-based research process, based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

(SE) Sources of Evidence

By the end of grade 12, gather relevant information and evidence from multiple sources to support analysis, reflection, and research, while assessing the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrating the information while avoiding plagiarism.

(RW) Range of Writing

By the end of grade 12, write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

2023 NJSLS-ELA K–12 (Word)

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22+ Impact Statement Templates in PDF
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Research Statement
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Writing an Impact Statement: Four Things You Need to Know
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Chapter 1: Project Writing
Writing Powerful Impact Statements
Identify a Research Problem Statement, Verify a Problem, and Handle the Requirement Gathering Stage
10/28/2011 Research Statements, Faculty Job Applications, and the Faculty Selection Process
Writing an Impact Statement: 4 Things You Need to Know
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Writing an Impact Statement: Four Things You Need to Know
Sections of an Impact Statement Given that impact statements although necessary, do not directly advance research, writing one can be quite tedious. The grant funders or employers may ask you to submit it before the allocation of funds or beginning of a research project/program.
PDF WritingImpact Statements
Impact statements An Impact Statement is 1-3 sentences capturing the main aspects of your research and why it 's important.
The Prickly Impact Statement
The impact statement should be a standalone snapshot of your project. Impact statements may go by other names — for example, the Australian Research Council's National Interest Test could be considered an impact statement — but they are essentially asking researchers to provide the same components.
Writing Effective Impact Statements: Who Cares? So What?
An impact statement is a brief summary, in lay terms, of the economic, environmental, and/or social impact of our efforts. It states accomplishments and their payoff to society by answering the questions:
PDF Impact Statement
Impact Statement AN IMPACT STATEMENT demonstrates the contribution of a body of research to economic, environmental, and/or social development and states the actions proposed to help realise this impact. It is a brief summary written primarily in lay, non-technical language, outlining the quantifiable payoff of research for society by addressing the following overarching questions:
Five Essential Tips for Writing an Impact Statement
An impact statement is a short, convincing explanation of how your project can have a positive effect on a larger community. Impact statements are often used to support work that is being proposed, and might be included in a grant application, a dissertation proposal, an application for a faculty position, a presentation to corporate executives or potential investors, etc. Other impact ...
PDF Writing an Impact Statement
An impact statement: • Briefly summarizes, in lay terms, the difference your teaching/learning, research/discovery, and extension and outreach/engagement efforts have made.
Writing Research Impact Statements
Measuring research impact is known to be challenging and takes many years to achieve (Cleary et al., 3 ). Equally, making judgements about research impact is fraught with complexity although frameworks exist that may guide determinations (Morgan, 6 ). Jaffe's ( 4) impact evaluation framework is designed to inform decision-makers about the scope of potential research outcomes and has ready ...
Impact Statements
Impact Statements. Impact statements are increasingly common in funding applications. These statements typically consist of five components: The problem needs to be articulated clearly and succinctly, explaining why the research is important in simple language for non-experts. The proposed solution should be described in a cause-and-effect ...
Writing an Impact Statement: Four Things You Need to Know
Sections of an Impact Statement Given that impact statements although necessary, do not directly advance research, writing one can be quite tedious. The grant funders or employers may ask you to submit it before the allocation of funds or beginning of a research project/program. Impact statements follow a standard format.
PDF Impact Statement Guidance Notes for
The following guidance describes the areas to consider in writing the thesis impact statement. The statement will need to be concise, and therefore should highlight those areas in which the research is likely to have the clearest impact. Supervisors can provide guidance and there are sessions about the impact statement by UCL's Impact Team as part of the Doctoral Skills Development Programme ...
How to write an impact summary and pathway to impact
Many researchers find the impact sections of their grant applications among the most challenging to complete. This guide explains exactly what you need to write in the two separate impact sections in a Research Council bid (your impact summary and your pathway to impact), and also applies to the impact sections of grant applications for other funders. Click on the podcast logo here for an ...
Creating Powerful Impact Statements
Why are powerful impact statements needed? Good science gets projects funded; powerful impacts get programs reauthorized. Learn to write impact statements that are useful and memorable from these narrated PowerPoint presentations.
So What? Writing an Impact Statement
Exemplar impact statements should be provided from a variety of sources to ensure that students have a range of options available that align with their field of study. Exemplars should include examples written by researchers who the students know, as well as broader national and international examples.
Writing a Strong Broader Impacts Statement
Broader Impacts Statement Pitfalls. Avoid the following pitfalls in your broader impacts plan: An education component that is generic and expected of a PI in your field anyway, such as mentoring graduate students. An education activity that is unrealistic or seems to be overreaching. Statements like "will impact K-12 education in the state ...
NSF 101: Five tips for your Broader Impacts statement
Here are five tips from NSF program officers to help you with your Broader Impacts statement. 1. Do your homework. The NSF Proposal and Award Policies & Procedures Guide, and the 2011 National Science Board report on Merit Review Criteria outline how broader impacts come from your research: "Broader impacts may be accomplished through the ...
Writing a Research Statement
A research statement is a short document that provides a brief history of your past research experience, the current state of your research, and the future work you intend to complete. The research statement is a common component of a potential candidate's application for post-undergraduate study. This may include applications for graduate ...
Example and Guide for Impact Statement
In this statement, you make your case for the impact of your work. The statement should address your perspective on past, present, and future performance and accomplishments. Avoid reiterating facts from your CV. The statement should be well-reasoned, well-elaborated, and well-written, and emphasize your primary areas of strength.
Writing a Research Statement (for a Tenure Package)
Writing a Research Statement (for a Tenure Package) tl/dr: Research statements should demonstrate that you have made or will make an impact through effective, clear storytelling about what you have done and how it connects to your research community. Careful organization and clear evidence of impact can help you make this case to the many different kinds of people who will read your statement.
Writing a Research Statement
A research statement is a short document that provides a brief history of your past research experience, the current state of your research, and the future work you intend to complete.
Evaluating impact from research: A methodological framework
A typology of research impact evaluation designs is provided. A methodological framework is proposed to guide evaluations of the significance and reach of impact that can be attributed to research. These enable evaluation design and methods to be selected to evidence the impact of research from any discipline.
Writing an Effective Research Statement
Writing an Effective Research Statement Bertin M. Louis Jr., (HigherEdJobs.com, June 8, 2022) | Posted on June 23, 2022
2023 NJSLS-ELA Writing Domain Anchor Statements
By the end of grade 12, write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. (WP) Writing Process. By the end of grade 12, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, and publishing. (WR) Writing Research

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Writing Effective Impact Statements: Who Cares? So What?

What is Impact?

Writing an Impact Statement

Audience for impact statements:

Impact statements follow a simple formulaI:

Five Essential Tips for Writing an Impact Statement

1. Keep it simple

2. Know your audience

3. Be specific when discussing impact

4. Name your collaborators

5. Use numbers to describe impact

Impact Statements

Creating Powerful Impact Statements

Creating Powerful Impact Statements

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B) Key Considerations for Development of Logic Models

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Writing a Strong Broader Impacts Statement

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NSF 101: Five tips for your Broader Impacts statement

1. Do your homework .

2. Seek additional resources.

3. Align your statement with your interests, expertise and community needs.

4. Know the difference between "broader impacts" and "broadening participation."

5. Know your audience.

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