The NCRA now REQUIRES impact statement submission for both new proposal submission and midterm reviews.

The NCRA forwards these impact statements to the Blue Ribbon Team (BRT), a lobbying organization working with NASULGC’s Budget and Advocacy Committee. The BRT uses the statements to emphasize the continued importance of funding agricultural research. The NCRA also forwards impact statements to the national impact writing team (headed by Ron Pardini (U-NV)), CSREES and posts them on the NCRA Impact Statement website as well (http://www.wisc.edu/ncra/impactstatements.htm).  Before forwarding to these entities, each impact statement is edited by Christina Hamilton (ncra@cals.wisc.edu) for content and grammar. 

These impact and research needs statements should not be seen by committees as “more paperwork.” In fact, they should be seen as opportunities to brag about the many accomplishments your committees have made — how have they given back to the community? How is the committee benefiting its stakeholders? This is also your project’s chance to describe research needs that would enhance its outcomes and output.

An important source of information in formulating these impact and research needs statements comes from the SAES-422 forms, which are required of ALL NCRA projects. We encourages all committees to submit their annual reports in a timely manner (within 60 days of the annual meeting). If a committee has kept up with its reporting requirements, the impact statement should be easy to write - the statement should not exceed two pages. 

That being said:

• PROJECTS WHO HAVE PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED IMPACT STATEMENTS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE NEW IMPACT STATEMENTS EVERY YEAR.  ADDITIONALLY, COMMITTEES WHO HAVE PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED IMPACT STATEMENTS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE NEW IMPACT STATEMENTS PRIOR TO NEW PROPOSAL OR MIDTERM REVIEW.   These committees will only be asked to update their previously-submitted impact statements prior to review. 
• HOWEVER, PROJECTS THAT HAVE NOT SUBMITTED IMPACT STATEMENTS WILL BE REQUIRED TO WRITE THEIR STATEMENT FROM SCRATCH PRIOR TO NEW PROPOSAL OR MIDTERM REVIEW.  Committees who have yet to write impact statements are encouraged to do so as soon as possible to save time in preparing for the review process. 

To see if your committee has submitted an impact statement, refer to the NCRA Impact Statement Website (http://www.wisc.edu/ncra/impstate-index.htm). 

To submit your committee's impact statement, use the Impact Statement Submission Form.  Also refer to difference between "Accomplishments" and "Impacts".