Developing Impact Statements for OARDC Programs

Glossary of Impact Terms

Communicating Research, Extension & Teaching Outcomes

Dave Benfield, OARDC: No matter what kind of publication you have to write, most of us are trained researchers or Extension personnel and we write in a scientific language. But now, we have to think about how we get our message out to a different audience.

Lori Kaser is not here today, but provides more information about impact statements in the handout. What she wanted to indicate is that we do use impact statements for your departmental reviews. One is related to discipline, one is related to mission and one is interdisciplinary.

Impact statements are a critical reporting medium. They’re utilized more and more by programs to justify spending to legislators. It’s a good elevator speech as well.

Ken Martin, OSU Extension: Just as OARDC asks for impact statements, Extension asks for nine impact statements over four areas. Advancing employment and income, enhancing agriculture and the environment, preparing youth for success, and strengthening families and communities.

Often times you see these impact statements in the OARDC and Extension quad-folds.

Jerry Bigham, OARDC: I think it was in 2005 when the college first started requiring impact statements. It forced our faculty, across a broad range of interests, to write something in a way that as a Director I could understand and use for information requested by the college, and to create one-pagers for people who visit the college or department. It may be a potential donor.

The first thing that comes up when you introduce yourself to a group is telling people what you do… Can you relate what you do at a lay level so that legislators can understand what you do?

One of the biggest concerns I had working with faculty on these is, this is research and is in progress and I’m not sure what the impacts are. You can say “potential impacts” and that gives an outcome and suggests what potential impacts may come of that.

Mark Erbaugh: The RFPs that we are responding to are increasingly requesting impact statements as part of the proposal. It’s good to have an impact in mind as you go into this and implement the project. You’ll have a much more robust form of impact. Lay the groundwork and build that into what you’re doing.

Dave B.: The other part of this relates to federal reporting. Early on, you were introduced to Hatch Act, which funds our experiment station and the Smith Lever Act, which funds Extension. I’ll let Terry talk about how we utilize those. Every year most of you will have some kind of project under one of these acts. The Hatch Act doesn’t fund individual projects, but it does fund your salary. You may not get project money from Hatch, but you are getting your salary money. So that’s why we require you have to have those projects and why we require reporting on those projects.

Terry Snoddy, Fiscal Office: We’ve been talking broadly about impact statements, and I want to reiterate that we are on a two year budget cycle with the state. About 70% of our funding  comes from the state on the research and Extension line items. They are very important to us because they make up a big portion of our funding. During our budget cycle, we meet with state reps and talk about what we do. It’s an educational process and these impact statements are very important for that.

With our federal reporting, we have research capacity funds. We get about $8 million from the federal government. There are few strings attached, but we have to tell them how we’re spending it. We spend this more on faculty salaries, so in order to do that we need to set up a Hatch project. This is different than stuff that goes through OSP because they are administered out of our college directly.

What’s required of a faculty? You need to have a Hatch project if you are paid by OARDC. We give new faculty about a one year grace period to get this up and running. This is where you get into a system called REEport. Susan Dimit in Wooster helps with this.

We try to set this up 10/1 through 9/30. These are five year projects and at the end of five years you get a new project. You set the project related to the research you’re already doing. At the end of the five years, you’re required to do a final report. Another way to meet this requirement is being a co-PI on someone else’s Hatch.

There’s a lot of reporting we do back to USDA. We do financial reporting, there’s also a Plan of Work process which is a rolling five year view of what we’re going to do. When you’re doing your Hatch project, you identify knowledge areas.

If you’re joining a multi-state project, every institution needs to have their own project at their institution to report their results. You need to create a project in REEport that goes along with that so you can report your piece. Typically, if you want to travel to multi-state meetings, there are dollars n the system to do that.

Question: How does Central State impact this?

Terry S.: In the McIntire Stennis program, they got a piece of the funding that we typically get. It’s not a huge amount. For the bigger piece of the funding, which is the Hatch funds, the 1890s get their own funding.

In a few years, only one Plan of Work will be submitted including Central State and OSU.

Ken M.: We have to report Extension multi-state as well. They’re also interested in integrated projects–meaning research and Extension combined. They are putting an emphasis on this in Washington as well.

Terry S.: We’re required to spend 25% of our funds on integrated activities. So if you’re research and Extension appointment, your salary is integrated.

Dave B.: You don’t have to write a 20 page proposal for a Hatch project, but it should be in enough detail so that a program officer has an idea of what you’re going to be doing and how you’re going to get your results.

Terry S.: If you’re a new faculty member with a research appointment, get in touch with your department or with Susan who is knowledgeable about REEport and how to get set up in the system.

Dave B.: More and more federal agencies are required to show accountability for the dollars you receive and what you’re doing with the tax payer dollars.

Hatch projects and reports shouldn’t take an inordinate amount of your time if you plan ahead and have the information available.