Here in this blog I briefly present some thoughts about research impact. I also should further explain what I said about the significance of the study in the previous blog (check this out: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/researchandcreativity.home.blog/121).
Significance to research is understood as the research contributions that one may achieve, and refers to the possibility of extending the existing understandings or developing new understandings. These contributions may create a gap that might be of interest to other researchers. However, significance to practice refers to the possibility of using the contributions achieved to inspire other areas of knowledge (e.g. policy making).
It should be made clearer that research impact differs from research contribution. Your research contribution is understood as significance to research, and that includes the insights and the understandings that the researcher develops in his/her research, based on the existing body of relevant literature. Also, the discussion of the research questions may reflect some contributions. The contributions that you may achieve may benefit the economy, and may influence the culture, environment, and/or society. If they do, that is research impact. Your research might have effects that go beyond academia (significance to practice). According to the Australian Research Council (2017, p.13), “research impact is the contribution the research makes to the economy, society and environment, beyond the contribution to academic research.”
Some PhD researchers make the mistake of discussing the research impact while discussing the aims and the objectives. This could be because they believe that impact is immediate, that is, they think that while analysing data and obtaining evidence they have achieved a research impact. Analysing some data obtained through interviews that were conducted by inviting some policy makers and stakeholders may help to discuss the research questions and the aims of the research. Importantly, one should know that there is a difference between routes to impact (the activities to achieve the impact) and the impact itself. As a PhD researcher, you may encourage impact, as you may give evidence to the studied situations that are necessary to be considered for policy making or social change. Giving evidence is not considered as impact. Your evidence might be impact if it is considered by organisations or institutions, as they interact with your research. Impact that research might reflect is varied and wide ranging, and that can be: cultural, social, economic, policy, technological, legal, and environmental impact.
Researchers may need to write an impact statement explaining the beneficial consequences from their research and answering some questions related to the impact of their research. You may have to contact the institution or the organisation to find out if they have a specific template for impact statement writing. For more information, contact the librarians in your university for assistance.
Bibliography
Australian Research Council. (2017). Engagement and impact assessment pilot 2017: Report.
Morton, S. (2015). Progressing research impact assessment: A ‘contributions’ approach. Research Evaluation, 24(4), pp. 405–419. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvv016 [Accessed 04 August 2020]
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