Investigators: Hande Mutlu-Eren (PI), Jeffrey Shaman

The Columbia Climate School will modernize faculty review, promotion, and tenure to better value interdisciplinary climate scholarship, community partnerships, policy engagement, and public communication. Through new criteria, dossier templates, and training, the project will create a flexible, mission-aligned framework that recognizes the diverse outputs needed to address climate challenges and accelerates the translation of research into real-world solutions.

Investigators: Elyse Aurbach (PI), Kate Birdsall (PI), Charles Hasemann, Diane Doberneck, Jennifer Renick

Michigan State will integrate publicly impactful scholarship, innovation, engagement, and entrepreneurship into promotion and tenure systems. A university-wide working group will develop guidance, rubrics, and tools while pilot colleges adapt new frameworks to disciplinary contexts. The project includes leadership engagement, mentoring networks, new reporting tools, and national dissemination through the Big Ten Academic Alliance and disciplinary societies.

Investigators: Carmen Hardin (PI) and Caron Lott

Philander Smith University will build a sustainable culture of open science by embedding transparent and inclusive research practices into career advancement and annual review. The initiative includes new promotion and tenure incentives, mini-grants for open research and educational resources, professional development, and a recognition and awards program to elevate community-engaged and collaborative scholarship.

Investigators: Anisha I Patel (PI), Bonnie Halpern-Felsher (PI), Lauren Lempert, Sydney Dougan, Dongmei Tan

Stanford will advance a comprehensive institutional strategy to better recognize and reward evidence-to-action research, including scholarship that translates knowledge into policy and practice. The project will convene cross-institutional experts and campus stakeholders to revise appointment and promotion processes, develop new evaluation criteria, and train faculty and review committees. Stanford will also build long-term infrastructure to support dissemination and societal impact, including new grant requirements, seed funding for translational research, a university-wide resource repository, and a new Evidence-to-Action Award.

Investigators: Ana Christina Ravelo (PI), Sikina Jinnah, and Kendra Dority

UC Santa Cruz will develop and implement institution-wide guidelines to evaluate open science, open source software, science communication, and graduate mentoring in merit and promotion. The project includes faculty working groups, campus-wide engagement, and Academic Senate approval of new evaluation standards. Capacity-building efforts will provide training, professional development, and departmental pilots to embed open scholarship and mentoring practices across disciplines.

Investigators: Harmony Newman (PI), Susan Keenan, Lizette Navarrete-Burks, Chelsie Romulo

UNC will revise faculty evaluation criteria to recognize High-Impact Practices such as interdisciplinary collaboration, open educational resources, community engagement, and student-centered teaching. Through faculty fellows, departmental pilots, and openly licensed toolkits, UNC aims for half of its departments to adopt revised criteria by the project’s end and to create a replicable model for other institutions.