Pathways to Impact
RCUK recently undertook a review of Pathways to Impactin consultation with representatives from the academic and user
communities and have listened and responded to these recommendations.
The review reaffirms our commitment to Pathways to Impact and minor
amendments have been made which are reflected in the updated information
and guidance below.
The Research Councils invest £3bn of public funding in excellent
research to bring about positive impact in our society and economy.
This occurs in many ways – through knowledge exchange, new products
and processes, new companies and job creation, skills development,
increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy, enhancing
quality of life and health, international development and so on.
Our primary criterion is research excellence. RCUK introduced
Pathways to Impact to encourage you to think about what can be done to
ensure your research makes a difference. Through Pathways to Impact we
want to encourage you to explore, from the outset and throughout the
life of your project and beyond, who could potentially benefit from your
research and what you can do to help make this happen.
Our Pathways to Impact case studies
provide personal accounts from RCUK-funded researchers in regards to
their approaches and experiences of Pathways to Impact, as well as
guidance, top tips and best practice for helping researchers to realise
the impact of their research. This word cloud may also provide some
inspiration.
Across the dual support system, the Research Councils and UK Funding
Councils are committed to supporting excellent research and to realise
the importance of impact. Research Councils require academics to
consider the future impact of research at the point of applying for
funding. UK HE Funding Bodies, in context of the REF, assesses the
historic evidence of impact. All funders have a common understanding of
the importance of societal and economic as well as academic impact.
Research Councils UK defines impact in the following ways:
Academic impact
The demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to academic
advances, across and within disciplines, including significant advances
in understanding, methods, theory and application.
When applying for Research Council funding via Je-S, pathways towards
academic impact are expected to be outlined in the Academic
Beneficiaries and appropriate Case for Support sections. An exception to
this is where academic impact forms part of the critical pathway to
economic and societal impact.
Economic and societal impacts
The demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society
and the economy. Economic and societal impacts embrace all the extremely
diverse ways in which research-related knowledge and skills benefit
individuals, organisations and nations by:
- fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom,
- increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy,
- enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.
Impact. Engaging the public with your research can improve the quality
of research and its impact, raise your profile, and develop your skills.
It also enables members of the public to act as informed citizens and
can inspire the next generation of researchers.
A clearly thought through and acceptable Pathways to Impact statement
A clearly thought through and acceptable Pathways to Impact is an
essential component of a research proposal and a condition of funding.
Grants will not be allowed to start until a clearly thought through and
acceptable Pathways to Impact statement is received.
A clearly thought through and acceptable Pathways to Impact statement should:
- be project-specific and not generalised;
- be flexible and focus on potential outcomes;
- identify and actively engage relevant users of research and stakeholders at appropriate stages;
- articulate a clear understanding of the context and needs of users
and consider ways for the proposed research to meet these needs or
impact upon understandings of these needs; - outline the planning and management of associated activities
including timing, personnel, skills, budget, deliverables and
feasibility; - include evidence of any existing engagement with relevant end users.
apply for the vast majority of proposals. In the few exceptions where
this is not the case, the Pathways to Impact statement should be used to
fully justify the reasons why this is not possible.
Research Council guidance for completing the sections on Impact can be found here.
Top Tips for articulating potential impact
- Draft the Impact Summary very early in your preparation, so that it informs the design of your research.
- Remember to consider and include project specific costs relating to
proposed impact activities e.g. engagement workshops or marketing
materials, publication costs, etc. - Do not cut and paste the text provided within the Impact Summary
into Pathways to Impact. The purpose of the Impact Summary is to provide
a short description of the beneficiaries and potential impacts, which
could be used in the public domain. Pathways to Impact should set out
what the applicant(s) will do to realise the potential impacts. - Public engagement is a popular form of impact activity. For such
activities to be as effective as possible, try to think of your research
in the context of two-way engagement not just outreach.
Pathways to Impact - Research Councils UK
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