What is research impact?

There are many definitions of what constitutes research impact and it is a very fluid term. In its simplest definition, research impact is about making a difference in the ‘real world’, outside of academia. Research contributes to numerous types of real world impact, including improving health and wellbeing, creating economic prosperity, enhancing cultural enrichment and quality of life and improving environmental sustainability.

Why is research impact important?

Being able to evidence the real-world benefits and changes that have happened as a direct result of your research is a prerequisite for the majority of funding bodies, not just in the UK, but globally. For UKRI grant applications, impact activities must be integrated into the overall plan for the project with thought given to required funding and audience reach. Applicants are asked to describe their plans to generate social, economic and/or academic impact and increasingly it is important to allow space for areas of co-production and interdisciplinarity, particularly within larger grant applications, to evidence that the wider implications of the research are being considered.

There is also a moral obligation on the University as a whole to ensure that public funds are being used to benefit society outside of the world of academia, and that local and global communities are able to access and gain from the projects conducted here at the University of Manchester.

The Research Impact teams across all three faculties of the University teamed up to offer a five module online training suite which which covers many of the core aspects of Research Impact.

You can book as many or few sessions as you would like and attend in any order although we recommend that you start with the ‘Introduction to Research Impact’ course before moving onto other sessions, particularly if you are new to research impact.

The training is open to all research staff including post-graduate researchers, and professional services staff, but as capacity is limited, researcher colleagues will be prioritised in the first instance. 

All session are available for booking on the university’s training catalogue, search ‘RESIMP’.

Module 1: Introduction to Research Impact (RESIMP001) 

This module provides an overview of research impact, including:

• What research impact is and isn’t
• Why research impact is important
• Developing a research impact plan 
• Impact and ‘blue skies’ research
• Promoting your research impact
• Support for research impact at The University of Manchester

Module 2: Planning for research impact and incorporating impact within grant applications (RESIMP002)

This module:

• Works through the four key areas to consider when developing an impact plan
• Demonstrates some tools that can help you to build up a strategy
• Explores how to merge impact and research strategies into a single cohesive plan
• Provides advice on how to write compellingly about impact within a grant application

Module 3: Communicating your research to a variety of audiences (RESIMP003)

This module will:

• address the importance of research communications to generating impact from your research project
• take you through key elements of research communication strategies
• share good practices and recommendations that you can apply to your own projects

Module 4: Working with stakeholders to achieve research impact (RESIMP004) 

This workshop is about working with external stakeholders’ in the context of research and research impact including:

• Different levels of engagement
• Stakeholder mapping (who to work with and why)
• Examples of external engagement with tips from academics and specialist teams

Module 5: Evidencing research impact (RESIMP005) 

This workshop will explore the key issues to consider when evidencing research impact, including:

• How to approach impact evidence collection
• Examples of evidence collection techniques
• Core requirements for evidencing impact in the Research Excellence Framework
• Using Pure to record evidence

University of Manchester pages

• Policy@Manchester – supporting researchers to work with policy makers and influencers

• Engagement@Manchester – support achieving impact through public engagement activities

• Promoting your Research – access support from Communications and Marketing colleagues

• Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange – supports partnership activity with external organisations across a number of mechanisms including collaborative research, consultancy, knowledge exchange, student projects and sharing facilities

• Cultural Partners – help to bring research to diverse audiences

External resources

• ESRC Impact Toolkit

• AHRC Impact guidance

• National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement 

• Fast Track Impact

Skills development opportunities

• Festivals: ESRC Festival of Social Science; Being Human Festival 
• AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinkers scheme 
• ESRC media training
• Parliamentary impact sessions