Research Impact is a crucial element of many research projects, and plays an important role in funding bids, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment, and project design. While impact itself is the real-world benefit of research, there are many more stages involved around this benefit, and understanding them all is crucial to achieving impact, and to making the process work best for you. Here, we bring together various elements of impact to show the big picture of impact journeys.

Understanding impact

Research Impact is “the beneficial change exhibited in society as a result of research”. For the REF, this could be a “benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life”. It’s whatever good you are achieving in the real world because of your research, and can vary hugely between different projects.

Blog: What is Impact (and why should I care)?

Understanding yourself

When speaking to colleagues who are working towards impact about their motivations, new answers always pop up – each person will have slightly different motivations to the next. Generally speaking, motivations can be sorted into 5 groups:

  • To do good and make a difference
  • It’s at the core of your research
  • It’s important to a funding bid
  • You have a specific connection to a community or problem
  • It is part of evaluation and planning your next steps

There is no right or wrong reason to seek impact. Understanding what is motivating you to pursue impact can help you to plan your work, and keep you going if you come up against barriers.

Blog: Impact Motivators: What’s driving you?

Impact goals

Setting impact goals at the earliest stages of planning your project can be crucial to achieving them. Understanding what you are trying to achieve, why, and who for, can shape entire research plans and help to ensure that you are pursuing the right pathways, in the most effective way. It can also be crucial for funding bids.

To get started, ask yourself these questions:

  • What research outcome, insight or evidence are you hoping to achieve?
  • What will this help to inform?
  • What is the potential benefit or change and who will be affected?

Blog: Setting Impact Goals 

From goals to reality

Once you have identified your impact goals, there are many pathways and approaches that may be useful to reach them varying between different projects. They might go ahead exactly as you plan, or they might shift and change throughout the course of your project. Some factors to consider include:

Identifying stakeholders: Stakeholders may be crucial throughout your project and need to be consulted from the start, whilst other projects may involve you approaching stakeholders with your research findings. Identifying stakeholders at the earliest stage possible can help you to ensure that the research that you are carrying out meets their needs in the best way possible.

Interdisciplinary research: Real-world problems often can’t be contained within clear academic disciplinary boundaries. Whilst interdisciplinary research isn’t essential, it can often help to achieve impact and meet stakeholder needs whether incorporated across the entire research project or integrated with a specific focus on achieving impact.

Communicating with policy makers: In some cases, bringing your research to the attention of policy makers can be crucial to achieving impact. There are a vast range of ways to achieve this, from communicating with appropriate MPs or Cabinet Members, to publishing blogs and papers, to submitting papers to calls for research.

Public Engagement: Public Engagement is a two-way process between academia and members of the public or public groups. It can help to inform your research, shape your impact aims and form an element of the project itself, whilst also benefiting the public and breaking down barriers between the institution and public.

There are many more potential impact pathways. You may use all of those above, or you may only use ones that aren’t listed here. Your pathway will depend on your project, who might be affected by your work, who could help you achieve your impact, and many other factors. There is no “cookie cutter” pathway to impact.

Evaluating and evidencing your impact

Evaluating your impact, and the work that you’re taking to achieve this, should be an iterative process. As you are aiming to achieve a real-world benefit, using structured evaluation can help to ensure that you are on track to achieving this, flag any problems before they escalate, and identify any potential pathways or stakeholders that you hadn’t initially considered. Considering your impact throughout your project can also help you to identify whether your project has potential to contribute to a REF Impact Case Study. 

At the end of a project, evaluation can serve multiple purposes including general reflection on the process, informing future approaches and potential further impact goals, and may also be required by funding bodies.

Evidence may be needed, and you should consider this from the planning stage of your project. Consider what initial information you might need for comparison, as well as how you will evidence impact once it is achieved.

Blogs: Evidencing your Impact; Mastering Impact Evaluation; Tracking policy impact

Communicating your impact

Impact communication can vary greatly between projects, and can depend on factors such as stakeholder relationships or funding requirements. Communicating your impact could mean anything from a social media post sharing what has been achieved to a Impact Case Study submitted for REF. In any case of communication impact, it is important to consider what you are trying to achieve with your communication, and who you are communicating with.

Blog: Communicating your Impact

Depending on your project and various stakeholder relationships, it can also be important to consider confidentiality concerns. 

There’s always more…

These, of course, are not all of the elements which might be involved in an impact journey, but give some perspective on the variety of what might be involved. Our Impact and Knowledge Exchange Resources Drive covers many more aspects of impact, and you can contact the impact team if you have any questions: impact@port.ac.uk