Supporting impact literacy at Leeds Beckett

For those of you that don’t yet know me, I’ve recently joined Leeds Beckett as the new Research Impact and Policy Engagement Manager for the university. This is a new role, which has been introduced to help maximise research and knowledge exchange impact and public engagement across the institution. Through this role, I will work to support academic staff with understanding, assessing, and collecting evidence of the external impact of their research and publications, as well as showcasing the great work that is happening across LBU.

Why now?

Well, research impact is only gaining in importance. It is an increasingly significant aspect for many funders globally, with growing visibility of impact in the bidding process, and robust impact plans mandated by most UK funders at the outset of a research programme.

Impact plans need to be connected to the strategic aims of a project and monitored throughout a project’s lifetime - and impact often reflects a funder’s own missions, particularly as it relates to issues such as health, education, culture, economic growth, the environment, or other areas of need (see UN Sustainable Development Goals).

But isn’t impact just about Research Assessment (i.e., the REF)?

It’s true that impact is a growing facet of almost all major assessment exercises (including the REF), and is no longer restricted to Research Councils, or in fact the UK (see US National Science Foundation), but impact doesn’t cease to be of importance outside of these frameworks.

Impact is about asking oneself: ‘How can I make a difference in the world?’ What are the benefits that people will feel as a result of my research? This is surely something that sits at the heart of why we do research?

So, what are my priorities?

As an organisation, we need to be able to monitor and track evidence of impact, so that we can assess what progress we have made. With that in mind, I’m currently running a programme of training for prospective impact case study authors on the new impact module in Symplectic, which I plan to scale across the university as we go into 2025.

I am also planning to roll out a programme of training and events across LBU to support the development of impact literacy across all career stages, as well as providing support for capturing and tracking impact within funded research projects.

And why does it matter?

Impact is about keeping us focused on the overall purpose of our research. It’s easy to get caught up in the logistics of delivering research projects, without having the opportunity to step back and ask: ‘why I am doing this?’, and ‘how will my work impact the people that will benefit from it?’. I have yet to meet an academic who hasn’t found this process useful!

By incorporating impact planning at the outset of a research project, it can be much easier to monitor and measure progress, capturing evidence as you go, which allows you to more clearly see the link (or causal chain) from the published research to achieving that wider societal impact.

Fancy a chat?

I work within the Research and Knowledge Exchange services team and can often be found working from The Knowledge Exchange. I’d be really interested to hear about your research (and challenges!) so that I can understand how I can most effectively support you, so please do reach out for a chat at Juliet.Harrison@Leedsbeckett.ac.uk.