Plan for research impact

Develop a strategy to increase your impact

As well as tracking the impact of your research – from the sidelines, so to speak – you can get actively involved in increasing its impact. To do this, you’ll need to develop and then implement a research impact strategy.

Read time: 3 min

Key takeaways

  • Write down your impact strategy, execute the plan, and refine it over time
  • The cornerstone of research impact is engagement – don’t make it an afterthought!
  • Plan for real-world impact by considering translational, co-designed, and collaborative research
  • Plan impact-generating activities at all points along the impact pathway

Develop your research impact strategy

An impact strategy helps translate your research into impact. Your impact strategy should consider what you’re trying to achieve, who your key beneficiaries are, what engagement and other impact-generating activities you’ll undertake (including at different points along the impact pathway), key indicators and evidence you’ll collect, risks and risk mitigation approaches.

Fast Track Impact’s Professor Mark Reed guides you through each step of creating an impact strategy using the Impact Planning Template, starting with the development of specific impact goals. 

Download the template to create your own impact strategy. The plan will save you time and ensure that you maximise your impact.

Refine your research impact strategy

To help achieve your impact goals you should incorporate impact planning across all stages of the research impact pathway. You should also consider risks to impact delivery and approaches to mitigate these risks.

For example, a common mistake is to leave engagement with users or beneficiaries to the final stage of the project, after the research is complete, when it may be more appropriate to engage at different stages throughout the project.

Planning questions for each stage of the impact pathway

Planning for real world impact 

It’s probably self-evident that certain kinds of research are more likely to lead to impacts beyond academia than others. Research that is designed to be translational, research that is co-designed by consumers, and research that is conducted in close collaboration with industry partners – these are just three examples of research destined for ‘real-world’ impacts.
 
Depending on your research area, it may be possible for you to plan for such impacts. Perhaps some of your research will remain fundamental, continuing to advance disciplinary knowledge, but you might be in a position to initiate a more ‘applied’ or ‘engaged’ stream of research too. 

 

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