Turning campus evidence into programs that work.
The Impact Project Research Lab in Waco, Texas is where our programs are tested, measured, and improved. Too often, campus health and basic-needs programs are built on assumptions rather than evidence. The Lab exists to close that gap. We design and run applied studies on food insecurity, nutrition, and sexual health among college students and young adults, and we feed the findings directly back into the outreach work of Impact Project USA | Africa across the United States and Nigeria. Our approach is practical. We collect data through student surveys, roundtables, and program evaluations, analyze it with the same rigor expected in peer-reviewed public health research, and publish results in a form students, university administrators, and community partners can act on. Findings from the Lab shape which programs we scale, which partnerships we pursue, and what we recommend to institutions serving students in need. The Lab also serves as a training ground. Students and early-career researchers join us to gain hands-on experience in study design, data collection, analysis, and dissemination while contributing to work that has a direct effect on their own campuses and communities.