UTS Research Impact Facilitator Catherine McElhone investigates writing for impact.
There are two ways you can approach writing for impact:
- retrospective- the impact, and how it was generated from a past project or problem space
- prospective- what you’re planning to do to generate impact from a project
“If you’re a HDR student, you won’t have a long career of impact so talk about your planned pathways to impact. But if you are an academic and are further along in your career, talk about the retrospective impact of your work to date,” Catherine said.
Creating a mechanism or a way to be able to capture that information is not often thought about.
"When researchers say impact is hard to measure, I ask them: Did you provide an opportunity for people to be able to reflect and provide input and get testimonials? Have you asked how your work may have changed their perspective?"
"Creating a mechanism or a way to be able to capture that information is not often thought about. Think about what you are trying to achieve and how it can be measured. Defining a set of indicators can be a good way to start. There are no perfect measures for impact but there are indicators of change."
Questions to consider when writing for impact:
- why is this research needed? (PROBLEM)
- who will be involved? (PARTNERS)
- what do you hope to find/be discovered?
- who will use your research? (USERS)
- what will they do with it? (OUTCOME)
- what do you hope will be the change? (INDICATORS)
- what will be the benefit? (IMPACT)
- what will be the evidence? (EVIDENCE).
Watch Fundamentals of Research Impact: Writing for Impact