Planning for Impact event
14 March 2013
At the first IAA-funded Planning for Impact event held on 14 March 2013, academics from across the University presented research-related activities they had carried out, to inspire their colleagues who are planning for impact in curent and future research.
The exciting presentations highlighted a range of activities with public groups and commercial organisations, which had increased the impact of their research. The event was hosted by Professor Chris Frost, Chair of the University’s Knowledge Exchange Forum.
Key messages included the importance of planning for impact from the beginning, including face-to-face meetings with potential influencers/partners and getting their input at an early stage. Introductions to external organisations came about in a variety of ways including via the University website, highlighting the need to keep your profile updated and accessible.
The importance of keeping external organisations updated about your research was emphasised, and this was done by:
- sending pdfs of published papers to contacts;
- publishing in practitioner journals;
- attending networking events run by others, e.g. the Knowledge Transfer Networks which facilitate useful face-to-face conversations;
- hosting showcasing events;
- cold calling, after researching their websites and matching your offering to their mission;
- posting on a local government forum.
The importance of disseminating research in the format your audience prefers was stressed and you might need to work with users to determine the best methods and not assume that a particular mode will be appropriate.
Understanding the challenges and drivers of external organisations is important to help you understand how you can help them articulate the research question. Many commented on the fact that these external organisations provided insights and ideas for research that they hadn’t considered.
Including costed activities into pathways to impact was advised. A recent bid reviewer commented that the pathways to impact their panel saw never questioned costs put in this section, but did question where there were no costs included. This section needs to demonstrate that even when working through others to achieve impact, you are taking responsibility for the pathway activities and the next steps you think are needed for the research to become used.
The activities presented had all been funded by the EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Account and Impact Acceleration Account. See the Knowledge Exchange/Pathways to Impact summary document for further details of these and other funded activities.
See the Planning for Impact event news page for more information about the presentations and to access copies of the slides.
If you are interested in applying for Impact Acceleration Account funding, please see the IAA website or contact Dr Denise Cooke, RDSO (x3622; d.cooke@bath.ac.uk).