President Neeli Bendapudi

Impact Innovations Award

President, Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research (PSI-PIR), The Pennsylvania State University

We launched the Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research (PSI-PIR) to make societal impact central to our research mission. Through the Presidential Public Impact Research Awards, we fund interdisciplinary, community-engaged teams that co-create solutions and move evidence into action. Early projects have deployed harm-reduction vending machines serving 500 individuals in six months, assessed cybersecurity risks for 70,000 nonprofits, analyzed 2 billion job postings to develop PA’s first green jobs taxonomy guiding retraining across 30,000 employers, and strengthened environmental stewardship through microplastics monitoring. Cohort-based evaluation shows participating faculty submit three times more subsequent proposals, demonstrating that institutional investments can accelerate both scholarly productivity and public benefit. PSI-PIR now informs an international council of presidents and chancellors, offering a scalable blueprint for embedding impact across higher ed.

I am the President of Penn State University and a lifelong champion of public universities as engines of opportunity and societal progress. My leadership is grounded in a belief in education as a powerful equalizer and in a deep commitment to connecting scholarship with public good. Since 2022 at Penn State, I have advanced a nationally recognized agenda for public impact research. Previously, as president of the University of Louisville, provost and business dean at the University of Kansas, and a faculty member at Ohio State and Texas A&M, I focused on aligning incentives, culture, and infrastructure with student success, equity, and engagement. Across roles, I work to ensure that research excellence and societal impact are mutually reinforcing, not competing, goals.

PSI-PIR is led by the Penn State Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, which serves as our institutional engine for translating research into policy and practice. This team designs and manages the Presidential Public Impact Research Awards, supports faculty and students in building authentic community and policy partnerships, and develops applied tools—such as taxonomies and datasets — that help decision makers use evidence in real time. They also lead a learning-oriented evaluation agenda, including a cohort-based waitlist design that examines how institutional support influences faculty behavior, student development, and community outcomes. Their work ensures that PSI-PIR is not just a funding program but a coherent strategy for institutional learning and improvement. In partnership with the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Penn State Outreach, they translate presidential vision into durable structures that anchor public impact in our research enterprise.

The PSI-PIR leadership spans the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, Penn State Outreach, and the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, embedding public impact within Penn State’s research and engagement infrastructure. Together, they align funding, recognition systems, and campus platforms so that societal relevance shapes how we support faculty, students, and partners across all our campuses. Collaborations with The Pew Charitable Trusts connect Penn State’s innovation to a national network of funders and universities advancing engaged research. This structure pairs on-the-ground project support with field-level leadership through the Presidents and Chancellors Council on Public Impact Research—demonstrating how internal alignment and external partnership drive systems-level impact.

I would emphasize that the PSI-PIR was designed from the outset as an institutional systems-change effort, not a short-term initiative. By embedding public impact in presidential leadership, funding mechanisms, evaluation, and national collaboration, we are working to make impact an enduring capability of our research enterprise. The early results—measurable community benefits, meaningful student experiences, changes in faculty behavior, and a growing national council of presidents and chancellors—suggest that this approach can help close the gap between what society expects from research and what our institutions are currently built to deliver. My hope is that PSI-PIR will continue to evolve through shared learning with peers across higher education, contributing to a future in which impact is a defining hallmark of research excellence.