Research Impact Facilitator Catherine McElhone is joined by Research Capability and Development manager Dr Thorsten Kostulski and Senior Research Grants Manager Stephan Waibel to discuss the practical implications of writing for impact.
“The government needs to justify why public funding has been given to projects,” Thorsten said. “This means you have to consider government objectives as you address the National Interest Test.”
The statement is up to 200 words and must answer three questions:
What is the project about and what research gap is it addressing for Australia?
How could the research benefit Australians (economically, socially, environmentally, commercially or culturally)?
How might you promote your research outcomes beyond academia to maximise understanding, translation, use and adoption of the research in future?
Why is it needed?
Who would care – and why?
How will it be adopted and by whom?
Keep it simple
It’s important to ensure your proposal is easy to understand.
“If your research project is designed for impact, these questions should be easy to answer,” says Research Impact Facilitator Catherine McElhone. “The key thing to remember is being able to explain its impact to the general public."
“You need to link back to how your work will benefit Australia. It is very important. What is the gap in knowledge? What are you contributing to knowledge?”
Thorsten said such questions should be easy to answer if the project is conceptualised and designed for impact.
“If you have already thought of these questions before you started your project, then they should be easy to answer. If you are trying to answer them at application stage, this is an indication something is wrong with your project.”
Be careful with the language. Anything you mention, you must explain.
Echoing Catherine’s warning not to attribute major advancements to your research alone, Thorsten highlighted the importance of plausibility and the need to distinguish between attribution and contribution. He said contribution is much easier to prove.
“Be careful with the language. Anything you mention, you must explain. You should be stating contribution such as, ‘Together with many other outputs, this project may lead to this impact or benefit later on’.”
“It doesn’t have to be you as a researcher who takes the future steps. You just need to know who will utilise your work and have a idea of how that will happen.”
Research impact for funding
Research impact matters most when trying to obtain international and national research funding, with many grant applications now including impact questions.
Stephan said impact is always a significant consideration in whether a grant is successful.
“Research impact matters. Funders will look at your track record. Have you done it before? Have you done it successfully?” Stephan asked, adding that your application must also meet the specific funding guidelines.
“Have a look at what the funder’s strategy is and where they’re coming from. Where is the money is coming from? Just because something will create impact doesn’t mean it’s of interest to the funder,” he said.
Resources
- The Research Whisperer, a blog from Wade Kelly is the Executive Advisor, Research Impact, at La Trobe University, in Melbourne, Australia.
- Post by Aaron Jenson How to write an impact summary