Communicating About Research in Higher Ed — Now More Important Than Ever

Among the cascade of executive orders to rain down upon higher ed in the past month was the National Institutes of Health new 15% reimbursement cap for indirect research costs, a move which could slash university healthcare and biomedical research by billions of dollars.

While a judge (as of this writing) has ordered a pause to this plan, many universities are exercising caution with their budgets amid continued uncertainty about funding freezes or cuts. 

This potential loss of funding would have a significant impact on the bottom line of research institutions. But this latest crisis facing higher ed underscores a deeper, more longstanding issue.

As we know, higher ed has suffered from a general decline in trust in public institutions and a diminished sense of the ROI of a college degree. Research is one area where higher ed’s positive impact on society and our general well-being is most directly felt at scale — from innovative medical discoveries that can save thousands of lives to investments that can drive millions of dollars in regional economic development. 

But much of higher ed still struggles to communicate research impact in a way that succinctly draws the connection between grants, bench research, and scholarly papers to transformative impact on individuals and communities. 

With research-related funding on the chopping block, the stakes have never been higher to communicate the critical importance of the research taking place at colleges and universities across the country — to educate the public and create champions for the cause.

Rebuilding Trust and Asserting Value Through Research

Much has been written about the need to improve communications about research. In a 2023 article for Times Higher Education about communicating the impact of research, Lyn R. Keith, a programme officer at the University of the West Indies, wrote:

Research that remains confined to academic circles has limited impact. Communicating your work extends its reach to policymakers, industry professionals, and the public, magnifying its influence."

Now more than ever, higher ed needs to reassess its communication strategies for research. It is not unusual for us to work with an institution that has indicated research as a top priority, only to see a significant lack of research-related content on the website. There is not always alignment between institutional priorities and the day-to-day marketing communications functions.

To this end, universities must seriously consider how to communicate research beyond individual articles or features. How does talking about research ladder up to the overall brand? What message architecture specifically guides how you talk about the overall impact or value of research? Essentially, why does research as a function matter at all? How best to assert this?

It is important to consider the foundational narrative that underscores the communication of individual research efforts. What fuels the research mission of a given institution? What is the history? Why does an institution conduct the research it does, in the way it does? How does this research ultimately effect change onto communities, the economy, and so on? What is the difference between basic and translational research, and why are both important? These are areas that the lay audience may not fully understand, but universities need to do a better job of contextualizing.

Getting more granular, these are some of the typical pitfalls we see when it comes to communicating research across digital platforms:

• Overreliance on press releases, which may not be written in a digestible format or distributed in an appropriate fashion to reach and engage a breadth of audiences
• Tendency for research content to be internally-focused (e.g. grants received, processes, university functions, labs and cores), versus telling a story of research impact
• Lack of research content targeted to alumni, missing an opportunity to enlist them as champions and influencers for the institution’s scholarly mission
• Focus on creating impressive-looking annual research reports and standalone research publications without sufficient consideration for SEO or distribution to external audiences
• Use of jargon or otherwise creating content that does not effectively translate research for the lay audience
• Coverage focused on the moment of discovery, the funding amount, and the potential for impact, but rarely laying out the (often long) timeline of what led to the grant or circling back to show the positive impact over time.

At its heart, the biggest issue in research communications is a failure to consider the human element — the people at universities making the discoveries, the lives in the world they are changing for the better, and the audiences we want to engage around this mission.

In a LinkedIn post on February 19, 2025, Johns Hopkins University summed it up well:

University research is about more than data—it’s about people. Research saves lives by bringing new treatments, cures, and hope to families everywhere. From transformative medical breakthroughs to innovations that shape tomorrow, the impact is real. Every future discovery starts with the work happening now." 

Also, when we’re talking about storytelling, there is nothing like the genuine enthusiasm of researchers who are excited by and dedicated to the act of discovery for the greater good. Yes, the scholarship is hugely compelling, but perhaps equally so are the emotional motivations for pursuing that work.

Resources for Improving Your Research Communications

Communicating about research is not easy — there’s a reason why science communications is a whole field unto itself — and this article does not attempt to be a comprehensive resource for how to do it well. But here are few tips for communicating more effectively about the transformative impact of your institution’s research efforts:

• Prioritize readability — ensure content is clear, audience-centered, jargon-free
• Focus on outcomes  — the process is important, but make sure you are elevating the benefit
• Consider your context — how does this research relate to your brand, your history, your research trajectory over time?
• Set a goal — what is the hoped-for outcome of sharing this work, and whom must you engage in order to achieve this?
• People first — who is doing this work, and who will it benefit? People love stories about people
• Explore formats — think beyond the press release and consider other formats such as website microcontent and social media stories, and rethink how to use traditional distribution formats like email
• Get visual — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and other visual social platforms challenge us to step away from the text, adapt a different tone, and immerse users in the work
• Be relevant — draw close connections between research and reality, illustrating how it matters to people’s everyday lives and the issues of the day
• Think broadly — there is critical research beyond the science or medical fields, so be sure to consider the humanities, social sciences, and other disciplines where grants can fund work that has tremendous local or regional impact.

More great guidance can be found from these sources:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Center for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Alabama Birmingham
• Social Science Research Council
• Inside Higher Ed
• Times Higher Education

Also, here are some examples of effective research communications via the website:

• University of Louisiana Lafayette (client) has a prominent "Research & Impact" page that blends outcome data, stories, and pathways to relevant offerings, as well as aligning their R1-level research functions to their values.
• This news article by USC Rossier Graduate School of Education (past client) breaks out key findings and implications of the study it covers.
• Yale University’s "Research at Yale" site (client) features critical tools for campus researchers while also touting stories and stats that illustrate the extensive impact of their work.
• For the Rockefeller Foundation (past client), we helped clarify the presentation of their work done around key areas, such as Power and Climate, showcasing and contextualizing relevant initiatives, grants, stories, and data points.
• University of North Carolina has an interactive map that breaks down how university research directly impacts various counties (and congressional districts) in the state.
• University of Washington shared a special Q&A feature for Valentine’s Day talking to researchers about how they fell in love with their area of research.
• In 2018, the Gannon University magazine featured a first-person essay by an undergraduate talking about how she found her passion for research.