Public Impact Research Workshop: November 15-18, 2025, Seattle, WA
The Public Impact Research Workshop is the first step in building the Public Impact Accelerator over the next four years. The Workshop will provide an intimate setting to gather, share successes and challenges, and develop more explicit frameworks and tools that support public impact research in place. We will:
-
- Analyze cases of impact, identifying the underlying resources, frameworks, methodologies, and theories that support success.
- Identify areas of missing capacity or roadblocks within our university systems that need to be addressed for lasting, real impact.
- Open space for participants to surface specific issues where they could benefit from peer support.
- Lay the groundwork for a national network among R1 public universities where we continue to learn and communicate our impact.
Context
Historically, public universities have played a foundational role in the civic life of their communities. Yet the erosion of trust in higher education has called into question the value of public universities in service to their communities. To rebuild trust, we must demonstrate and deliver more value to our state and local community partners. Schools of public affairs and policy at R1 public institutions are uniquely equipped to lead the way in defining, enabling, delivering and documenting public impact.
Our Vision: A Hub of Community Expertise within Public R1 Universities
Public impact research is a broad term that encompasses any research that is intended to not only produce scholarly impact but to also deliver value to the public. Public affairs scholars are particularly good at producing this type of research because of our knowledge of the policy process, and operation of public, nonprofit, and private institutions in the public square. Yet we’ve been less good at sharing how we do this and documenting our impact. Now is the time to change that. Our aim is to leverage the unique expertise of public affairs schools to increase the capacity of our universities to deliver and document public impact research that serves our state & local communities. What is needed to activate this capacity is a strong network across peer R1 public institutions—an effort we are calling The Public Impact Accelerator. Through our collective work, we will help rebuild trust in higher education by delivering real value to the state and local communities we serve.