Nearly 150 broader-impacts professionals start the 12th ARIS Summit in Omaha with a keynote by Dr. Raven Baxter

Dr. Raven Baxter gave the opening keynote of the 12th annual ARIS Summit on April 3, 2024, at the Omaha Marriott Downtown in Omaha, Nebraska. Nearly 150 broader-impacts professionals gathered for the three-day meeting, themed "Centering Partnerships: Meeting in the Middle."

She took the stage on the Summit's first morning in a pink blazer, microphone in hand, beside the ARIS banner.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) judges grant proposals on two criteria, intellectual merit and broader impacts. The second asks how the research will benefit society. Broader-impacts professionals help researchers plan and carry out those activities.

Those criteria were under review that spring. In 2023, the National Science Board created a commission to assess both, with recommendations due by May 2024, AIP FYI reported. Board member Stephen Willard told AIP FYI it had been about 12 years since NSF last formally assessed the criteria. The Summit held a plenary with program officers from the National Science Board's NSF Merit Review Commission.

The meeting also followed a cut to NSF's 2024 budget of about 8%, to just over $9 billion, according to AIP FYI.

The Louis Stokes Regional Center of Excellence for the Study of STEM Interventions, known as the SOSI Center, co-hosted the Summit and ran pre-conference workshops on April 2. The program also included the first ARIS Impact Slam. Dr. Alicia J. Knoedler, head of NSF's Office of Integrative Activities, also gave a keynote. An awards ceremony at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium honored Broader Impacts Champions and ARIS awardees.

Baxter on the keynote stage at the 2024 ARIS Summit. Photo: ARIS

"Her keynote was amazing, fun and very powerful!" Susan D. Renoe, who leads ARIS at the University of Missouri, wrote in a testimonial on Baxter's speaking page. On the ARIS website, Laura Sample McMeeking of Colorado State University called the Summit "the best, most productive conference I have ever attended!"

ARIS, the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society, began in 2014 as the National Alliance for Broader Impacts. It took its current name in 2018. Housed at the University of Missouri and funded by NSF, it calls itself "the largest U.S.-based organization focused on impact." Its membership topped 1,600 in 2024, according to its Summit sponsorship page.

Baxter with Summit attendees in Omaha. Image: ARIS video

Baxter, known online as Dr. Raven the Science Maven, trained as a molecular biologist and earned her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo with research on communicating science through hip-hop. The next day, she gave the keynote at the Nebraska Women in STEM Conference in nearby La Vista.

The Summit program is on the ARIS website, and ARIS posted a highlights reel from the Summit on YouTube.