UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi has received the 2026 Impact Innovations Award from Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS), a national organization dedicated to strengthening the societal benefits of research, for her leadership in making real-world impact a central part of the University’s research mission.
The award recognizes Bendapudi’s Penn State Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research (PSI-PIR), an initiative that promotes research in partnership with government, businesses and communities, reinforcing the essential role of universities in serving the public good.
“Penn State’s Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research represents exactly the kind of institutional leadership the Impact Funders Forum seeks to elevate,” said Angela Bednarek, director of scientific advancement at The Pew Charitable Trusts and chair of the Impact Funders Forum. “PSI-PIR moves beyond individual projects to redesign the systems that enable research to inform policy, practice and community outcomes. Through President Bendapudi’s leadership to bring together her peers and align internal incentives and national collaboration, Penn State is demonstrating how universities can operationalize research impact at scale.”
Since its launch, PSI-PIR, led by the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, has supported interdisciplinary teams across 11 Commonwealth Campuses, engaging more than 200 students in applied research addressing environmental sustainability, public health, workforce development, cybersecurity, education and public well-being.
“Public research universities exist to serve society and at Penn State we approach this mission through an interdisciplinary lens focused on solving our world’s most pressing challenges,” said Bendapudi. “Through the Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research, we are proud to build upon our land-grant mission to recognize the power of research that benefits the places we live, work and study. This recognition from ARIS affirms the amazing work of our faculty, staff and students across our campuses who are demonstrating every day that rigorous scholarship and meaningful public benefit go hand in hand.”
The PSI-PIR advances public impact through two flagship efforts:
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The Presidential Public Impact Research Awards (PPIRA), developed in partnership with President Bendapudi’s office, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, the Vice President for Outreach and Penn State’s Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative (EIC), supports faculty-student teams conducting research with community partners to have tangible public benefits. The program has invested nearly $700,000 to support the Commonwealth Campuses.
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The Presidents’ and Chancellors’ Council for Public Impact Research, which is a national leadership platform convened in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Impact Funders Forum. The council, which Bendapudi has chaired since 2024, brings together university leaders to develop shared strategies for embedding public impact in governance, funding, infrastructure and accountability systems across higher education.
Among its efforts, PSI-PIR projects have contributed to new harm-reduction models serving hundreds of community members, developed tools to strengthen nonprofit cybersecurity readiness statewide, advanced environmental monitoring partnerships with state agencies and produced workforce data now used to guide retraining and economic development strategies.
Beyond individual projects, PSI-PIR integrates learning-oriented evaluation to assess how institutional incentives influence research productivity and societal outcomes. Evaluation findings indicate that faculty participating in PPIRA significantly increased subsequent research proposal submissions, demonstrating that structured support for public impact can catalyze sustained scholarly activity while strengthening societal benefit.
For more information about the Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research, and the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, visit evidence2impact.psu.edu.