Public Scholarship and Engagement has opened the Public Impact Research Initiative for the third round of applications. The initiative is designed to recognize and support research that is cogenerated with community partners, is of mutual benefit and has a positive public impact. The grants for new collaborations or sustaining relationships will support publicly engaged research with non-university partners and are intended to position researchers for future funding, capacity building, and growth in research areas that include mutually beneficial partnerships.

On Monday, November 15, 2021, the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) — an international non-profit organization devoted to promoting research and discussion about service-learning and community engagement — hosted a virtual ceremony for their 2021 research recognition awards. During this ceremony, two exemplary UC Davis researchers were awarded for their community-engaged research.

In the world of higher education, community engagement projects (teaching, learning, scholarly activities) boil down to people coming together under a common goal to make change. At its best, all actors in the partnership learn and grow. But how do these partnerships start? What is their origin story? To answer this question, I’ll start with my initial community-engaged experiences and tell you about how Public Scholarship and Engagement (PSE) is working to facilitate more community engagement origin stories.

This Fall, Public Scholarship and Engagement (PSE) will welcome the second cohort of Public Scholarship Faculty Fellows, established to support individuals creating and circulating knowledge for and with publics and communities. This includes, for example, developing research relationships with community partners, identifying ways to integrate scholarship with policy, and applying for extramural funding or awards.

"Having a conversation about wildfires may be an unusual way to help educate people about climate change in our oceans. But for Northern California-based marine scientist and AAAS Fellow Tessa Hill, Ph.D., both topics are urgent and closely related. Deadly, fast-moving wildfires have touched nearly everyone in the region. And the fires’ link to climate change provides a non-threatening way for her to engage with her community about heat waves, both on land and in the oceans.