The Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) was launched in September 2018 with funding from the National Science Foundation to "advance the rigor, relevance, and practice of broader impacts (BI)." ARIS works to elevate research impact by providing high-quality resources and professional development opportunities and by creating connections among researchers, community partners, and engagement practitioners.
The external evaluation team at SERC provides an independent, formative assessment of whether Center activities are being implemented as proposed (implementation evaluation) and desired outcomes are being achieved (outcome evaluation).
Consistent with a Development Evaluation (DE) approach, the goal of this work is to provide project leaders with the information they need to continuously adapt and improve ARIS materials and programming throughout the grant period.
