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 every grant proposal 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 that part of the work.

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. It was the first formal look at the criteria in about 12 years. 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. Public confidence in scientists had fallen too. A Pew Research Center survey published in November 2023 found that 27% of Americans had not too much or no confidence in scientists, up from 12% in April 2020.

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!" said Susan D. Renoe, who leads ARIS at the University of Missouri. 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.

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.