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What is Impact?

Impact is the difference your research makes beyond academia -  it's when the knowledge generated by your research benefits and influences the world around us. In basic terms, it's the good academic research does in the world.

There are multiple evolving definitions for research impact but the most common definitions are:

“an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.” (REF 2021)

"Impact is the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. This occurs in many ways – through creating and sharing new knowledge and innovation; inventing ground-breaking new products, companies and jobs; developing new and improving existing public services and policy; enhancing quality of life and health; and many more." (UKRI)

Why Impact?

UK Research and Innovation collectively invest £6 billion in research and innovation each year, to meet tomorrow’s challenges, and so it comes as no surprise we need to prove there is a return on public spend invested in research.

How will Impact be measured in REF2029?

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the process of expert review that informs the amount of quality related research funding that is provided to Higher Education Institutions in the UK.

It involves:

  • an assessment of the quality of research carried out at each institution (outputs 60 %)
  • the impact that arises from said research (engagement and impact 25%)
  • the environment supporting the research (environment 15%)

The process of peer review is carried out by expert panels for 34 subject-based UoAs, under the guidance of 4 main panels.

Star ratings (1* - 4* or unclassified) are awarded and these are used to determine the level of QR (Quality-related) funding for each HEI, feeds league tables, used for bench-marking and accountability.

Impact will be assessed in terms of reach and significance and rigour regardless of the geographic location, whether locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.

Impact Top Tips

  • Plan for impact from the beginning
    • Know the research goal, ask yourself ‘who will benefit from this research?’ and include research users and stakeholders in the research design process, if appropriate.
    • Include impact costs in grant applications
    • Use the Impact Planner
  • Engage stakeholders and beneficiaries
    • Who is your audience? How are you going to engage with them and when?
    • Consider what you want to achieve from the engagement and how they will benefit, before you approach them.
  • Track and evidence your benefit
    • Track your impact activities from the beginning
    • Collect all evidence of engagement and benefits directly linked to your research
    • Track and record your evidence in PURE
  • Understand the distinction between pathways to impact and actual impact
    • Impact is the benefit or change that occurs because of your engagement and/or intervention
    • Knowledge exchange, public engagement, research dissemination and events are all pathways to impact
    • Ask ‘what happened next?’, ‘who is benefitting and how?’ to determine if you made an impact
  • Contact the Impact Team who can support
    • Pathways to Impact statements
    • Commercial and Civic Impact Funds (small pots of money to help you maximize your projects’ impact potential)
    • REF Impact Case Studies
    • Public and stakeholder engagement

Impact FAQs (for REF2021)