IMPACT ENGINE
PROPOSAL PROCESS
Eligibility
Impact Engines must be led by Northeastern Faculty, who act as PIs or Co-PIs. Staff must be part of an Impact Engine leadership team, but the lead contact must be a Northeastern faculty member.
REVIEW THE
CRITERIA
Project ideas will be considered from any discipline, college, or campus.
Successful proposals include most of these features:
- Clearly describe a real-world problem and formulate a methodology to move the needle on solving that problem in under five years.
- Have clear milestones and metrics to measure the impact of the problem.
- Be interdisciplinary and include faculty from two or more colleges or disciplines.
- Include demonstrated support from external partners or end-users (such as other academic institutions, non-profits, industry, community, or governmental organizations). Additionally, proposals must describe how the proposed solution will be used by these external partners, and how you will determine if those expectations are being met.
- Engage with students.
SELECT THE RIGHT APPLICATION STAGE
Project ideas will be considered from any discipline, college, or campus.
Successful proposals include most of these features:
- Development Stage proposals require under $200,000 in resources and typically take less than 2 years to achieve their milestones.
- Engine Stage proposals require more than $200,000 in resources and typically require 3-5 years to achieve their milestones.
FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE PROPOSAL TIMELINE
Phase 1: Optional Consult
Proposal teams are strongly encouraged to schedule a consultation call with the Impact Engine team to discuss their project idea. Consult calls are available between January 2 – 26 and August 5 – September 6, 2024. Please submit this form to request a consult call. It will ask you for a brief 2-3 sentence summary of your project idea.
Phase 2: Discussion Paper
Discussion papers are the first formal proposal stage. To help facilitate team building, discussion papers will be shared with Northeastern Deans, ADR and Research Development staff. Also, discussion papers will be peer reviewed by internal Northeastern experts, according to the Impact Engine Review Criteria (listed below).
The discussion paper must answer specific questions about scope, milestones and evaluation metrics. A template with examples and further explanation is available for download below. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the template’s examples prior to preparing a discussion paper. Also, as part of the submission applicants will be asked to supply the names of 3 potential Northeastern experts to serve as peer reviewers.
Phase 3 (by invitation only): Workshop
Teams with favorably reviewed Discussion Papers will be invited to a workshop series with Impact Engine program staff and advisors to refine their project and build out expertise areas in their team (if needed).
Phase 4 (by invitation only): Presentation to Impact Engine Leadership Group
Successful workshop teams will be invited to develop a more detailed budget and will present their project to the Impact Engine Leadership Group. The format will be a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation followed by discussion with the Impact Engine Leadership Group.
Development Phase proposals will receive a funding decision after this presentation.
Engine Phase proposals approved by the Impact Engine Leadership Group will be sent for external peer review.
Phase 5 (by invitation only): Presentation to Senior Leadership Team
Engine Phase proposals with favorable external peer review require approval by the University’s Senior Leadership Team. The Impact Engine support team, advisors, and leadership group will work with Engine Phase proposal teams to develop materials for SLT consideration.
UNDERSTAND THE REVIEW CRITERIA
Primary Review Criteria:
- Does the problem statement clearly highlight a significant need?
- Does the problem statement clearly explain why this need has not yet been solved?
- Is the proposed solution tractable and feasible within the 3-5-year timeframe in which the impact engine project would move the needle?
- What is the competitive landscape?
- Is there a serious opportunity for Northeastern to be a leader in this area?
Additional Review Criteria may include:
- Is there a clear vision with quantifiable metrics to track progress on the stated problem?
- Is there commitment from partner organizations that provides a clear path to success?
- Is the project interdisciplinary?
- Does the project include opportunities for student experiential learning?
- Quality of the plan for sustaining or expanding impact beyond the time period of the project
- Does the project have support from the relevant Deans?
- Does the project align with the priorities of Health, Sustainability or Security?
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL
Discussion papers are the first formal proposal stage. To help facilitate team building, discussion papers will be shared with Northeastern Deans, ADR and Research Development staff. Also, discussion papers will be peer reviewed by internal Northeastern experts, according to the Impact Engine Review Criteria.
The discussion paper template with examples and further explanation is available for download below. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the template’s examples prior to preparing a discussion paper. Also, as part of the submission applicants will be asked to supply the names of three potential Northeastern experts to serve as peer reviewers.
Answer each question with 1-2 short paragraphs. Please use quantitative descriptors. For example, rather than “improve sensitivity,” use “increase sensitivity by 50%”; rather than “many people are impacted” say “80% of the population of Boston is impacted.” The final version should be no more than five pages long using 11 or 12 point font and will be uploaded in the application form.
UPLOAD THE DISCUSSION PAPER
Thank you for your interest in Impact Engines. The deadline for the Spring cycle of proposals has passed. We invite you to submit a proposal in the Fall. For questions, please reach out to impactengines@northeastern.edu.