The Research Impact Handbook

266 Pages·2016·2.771 MB·English

by  Mark Reed

The Research Impact Handbook

Mark S. Reed

First published 2016
by Fast Track Impact www.fasttrackimpact.com
St Johns Well, Kinnoir, Huntly, Aberdeenshire AB54 7XT

© 2016 Mark S. Reed and Fast Track Impact Ltd

The right of Mark S. Reed to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This book should be cited as:
Reed, M.S. (2016). The Research Impact Handbook. Fast Track Impact.

ISBN: 978-0-9935482-0-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-9935482-1-5 (ebk)

Cover design by: Anna Sutherland
To Hazel, Alfie and Isobel, in the hope that your incurable curiosity is never
cured
Contents

1 Introduction

Part 1: Principles to underpin your impact

2 The impact philosophy: five principles to underpin your impact
3 Principle 1: Design
4 Principle 2: Represent
5 Principle 3: Engage
6 Principle 4: Early Impacts
7 Principle 5: Reflect and Sustain

Part 2: Steps to fast-track your impact

8 Step 1: Envision your impact
9 Step 2: Plan for impact
10 Step 3: Cut back anything hindering or distracting you from your
impact
11 Step 4: Get specific about your impacts and the people who can
help you
12 Step 5: Achieve your first step towards impact and monitor your
success

Part 3: Tools and techniques

13 How to work out who is interested in your research: stakeholder
analysis
14 How to design events with stakeholders and members of the public
15 How to facilitate events with stakeholders and members of the
public
16 How to use social media to drive research impact without wasting
your time
17 How to get impact from Twitter, You Tube and LinkedIn
18 How to crowdfund your research to engage with the public
19 How to engage policy-makers with research: a relational approach
20 How to make a policy brief that has real impact
21 How to evidence and write up your impact
22 Conclusion: left hanging (with the right tools for the job)

Part 4: Templates and examples

Stakeholder analysis template
Example event facilitation plan
Impact planning tool and example
Social media strategy

Further reading

Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Introduction

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the
world.”
Robin Williams

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an
idea that exists only as an idea.”
Buddha

“Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into
practice with courageous patience.”
Hyman Rickover

Imagine what might be possible, if we could harness the collective
knowledge of every researcher in the world to tackle the challenges facing the
world today. We could do amazing things.

Researchers are under more pressure today than ever before to demonstrate
the economic and social benefits, or ‘impact’, of their work. But we have
been trained how to do research, not how to generate impact. This means
many of us feel unprepared and out of our depth when we think about
working with people who might be interested in our research. It is hard to
know where to start. Putting out a press release doesn’t usually do much.
Even if the story is taken up widely, knowing how to convert media
interviews into real economic and social benefits is a whole different thing.
If you have no idea how your research could make a difference, then this
book will help you identify practical things you can do to start on a journey
towards impact.

If you know the sorts of impact you would like your research to have, but
don’t have the confidence, skills or ideas to make it happen, this book will
give you the tools to move forward with.

If you are already making a difference and want to take your impact to a new
level, this book will help you refine your practice and become more efficient
as a researcher, so you’ve got more time to have an even greater impact.

Rather than feel daunted by the challenge, I want to share with you how
straightforward (and fun) it can be to embed impact in your research. The
principles and steps I will show you in this book will be just as effective if
you’re researching medical microbiology or mediaeval monasteries; whether
you are a PhD student or a professor. They are based on research I have done
with colleagues over the last decade into the way we generate and share
knowledge, and they have been tried and tested by researchers I have trained
around the world.

For many of these researchers, simply understanding how they can achieve
impact from their research is a revelation. They discover a new sense of
motivation, knowing that the paper or book they are writing won’t just end up
on a library shelf gathering dust, but will actually be put into practice or
change public perceptions. They feel empowered when they discover the new
digital tools that can help them reach out to more people than ever before. For
many of the researchers I work with, just discovering how many people are
genuinely interested in their work creates a thirst to understand how they can
engage with these people more effectively. I think people are often surprised
how quickly they can start to realise impacts once they understand a few
basic principles and start taking clearly-thought-out, deliberate steps towards
impact.
People and relationships are at the core of this book. Engaging with people,
building and maintaining relationships takes time and patience. This isn’t
about clever tricks or ‘easy’ steps, a time-saving app or revolutionary pill that
will achieve impact from our research. However, if you build your impact
over time, with care and attention, you will find this a very rewarding
process. I am passionate about helping researchers to discover how their
research can make a difference, no matter how big or small that difference is.
Together, if we as a research community can learn how to generate even
modest impacts from our work, I believe we can collectively make the world
a better place.

What is stopping you putting new knowledge into practice?

We live in an increasingly networked world in which academic collaborations
are growing in size and disciplinary diversity. However, there remain many
important barriers that prevent us from putting our knowledge into practice.
Putting aside issues of funding, politics and other external barriers for a
moment, I believe that the greatest barrier is us.

When I train researchers, there are two things that come up time and again.
The first is that researchers are trained how to generate and test new ideas,