Institutions and individuals are increasingly interested in understanding and evaluating faculty contribution, productivity and impact, especially for academic promotion and tenure. It is important to understand the requirements of your department for promotion and tenure, as well as the work that is most important to you personally, when thinking about impact.
Academic departments have traditionally focused on scholarly impact. However, academic work does not have to be isolated to academic communities, but can be used for economic and social benefit. Indiana University has built institutional capacity in these areas and hosts an Innovation & Commercialization Office, as well as a Center for Rural Engagement and various offices for community engagement in various departments and schools.
You can think of impact in a holistic manner, incorporating the academic requirements of your department, the work that is important to you, and how your work benefits your community or our society at large.
With that in mind, you can develop an impact plan that will allow you to thoughtfully:
- plan your work
- share your work
- gather evidence on the impact of your work, and
- communicate how your work affects our community - both your scholarly community and the wider society.
Your Impact Plan: Strategize, share, capture, then communicate.