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There\u2019s considerable confusion about what \u2018impact\u2019 is, and this is no surprise given that it\u2019s a term that\u2019s used for so many things in the contemporary research space.<\/p>\n
For my research, I\u2019ve had many, many conversations with people across higher education in Australia and Canada at all career levels (research higher degree students, Early Career Researchers, Mid Career Researchers).\u00a0 Alongside the confusion about what impact\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0is what impact means (and will mean) to academics.<\/p>\n The following primer is a brief history of the impact landscape, an exploration of some of the trends in higher education, and some things to consider as you start your \u2018impact journey.\u2019<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s start by clarifying some of the many meanings of impact. I find it easiest to consider impact as happening either inside (internal) or outside (external) of academia.<\/span><\/p>\n Internal impact<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0are the kinds of impacts that academics have been talking about, tracking, and trying to increase for years. These impacts are front of mind for academics as they\u2019re often related to annual reviews, promotion and tenure. These types of impacts are also often referred to as academic or research impact. Generally, if you see a university library advertising a session on increasing your impact, this is what they\u2019re discussing.<\/p>\n Examples of academic impact activities may include:<\/p>\n Increasingly, when university administrations \u2018discuss\u2019 impact, they are talking about the\u00a0impact academic research has outside of the academy<\/strong>, or\u00a0external impact.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0This type of impact may be on politics, health, technology, the economy, law, culture, society or the environment.<\/p>\n Examples of external impacts (as a result of research):<\/p>\n Put simply:<\/p>\n Getting a journal article published is internal impact. The \u2018impact agenda\u2019 has been spurred on by several factors, but the most dominant has taken the form of institutional assessments. In an increasingly \u2018accountability\u2019 driven higher education space, such assessments have been adopted to provide tracking of and justification for the investment of public money in university-based research. The history of impact goes back to the early 2000s with various schemes and pilots having been run along the way. The notion of \u2018Impact\u2019 (external) really took hold in 2014 when the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the UK introduced an impact assessment. The REF 2021 will also have an impact component. Impact is not going away.<\/p>\n In Australia, the Engagement and Impact (EI) Assessment was run in 2018 as part of the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) process, by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Results were released at the end of March. Each university in Australia submitted case studies of research in each Field of Research (FoR code, which is a broad disciplinary categorisation) to be assessed in engagement, impact, and approach to impact. Each submission was scored by a panel of experts as either low, medium, or high. If you were at a university that did not have philosophy department, you would not submit a case study for FoR 22 (Philosophy and Religious Studies), but if you did have a philosophy department you were expected to submit (with a few exceptions).<\/p>\n To complicate things even further, there is retrospective and prospective impact. Retrospective impact is the impact your research has already had (or is having). Prospective impact is the impact that you would like \u2014 or hope \u2014 your research to have. I recently heard impact described in a meeting as \u2018big I impact\u2019 and \u2018little i impact.\u2019 The former being the big institutional assessments (REF, EI) that only a few high performing researchers will be involved with. Whereas \u201csmall i impact\u201d is how each individual researcher will consider how impact is incorporated into their research plans, evidenced, and reported on. The national interest test may, for example, be considered \u2018small i impact,\u2019 as the onus sits on the individual researcher to account for how the research will make an impact that benefits the interests of the nation. Increasingly, researchers are being required to account for the expected impact of research through impact statements on grant applications.<\/p>\n Some universities have recognised the need to resource external impact more fully in response to the institutional impact assessments and an increased focus on impacts in grants. Universities have hired writers to assist with impact statements, communications experts to assist with building academic profiles, knowledge mobilisation specialists, and a full complement of expertise to meet their local needs. Other universities, have been unresponsive, perhaps conceiving of impact as an academic fad. In the UK funding is attached to impact through the REF. In Australia, the Engagement and Impact Assessment is not, at this point, related to funding. Resourcing will likely be dictated by the trajectory impact takes in the coming years.<\/p>\n It is important to note that this isn\u2019t a settled space. Our understandings of how to account for the impact of academic research in society is still evolving, and along with that, our language to describe it. For example, because the REF and EI utilised a case study approach, those supporting and promoting impact might avoid quantitative words such as \u2018measures,\u2019 and instead adopt \u2018indicators.\u2019<\/p>\n It is clear that impact is not just coming, it is here. Knowing how to talk about impact and chart pathways to impact \u2014 the various engagements along the way that will aid research being taken up \u2014 will become increasingly critical for academics. We have been talking about internal impact for years but being able to articulate external impact will be increasingly important for academics\u2019 success.<\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/em>Having that research create change in the world, is external impact.<\/em><\/p>\n