– a view from the Trenches Impact and the REF – a view from the Trenches Anne Sofie Laegran Knowledge Exchange Manager College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science University of Edinburgh a.s.laegran@ed.ac.uk http://impact.hss.ed.ac.uk/

The impact of impact in academia Culture change: All academic staff must consider the potential impact of research Challenge: Not only create, but demonstrate impact Incentives: Impact part of career progression Training: How to develop pathways as well as how to capture and evidence impact Support: More funding and staff available

Collaborators /partners Influencers and decision makers Beneficiaries Collaborators /partners Influencers and decision makers Developing pathways to impact Who may benefit from your research? What might the benefits be? What can you do to ensure potential beneficiaries and decision makers have the opportunity to engage and benefit? -> developing new skills and networks

Process Result Excellent Research Impact Knowledge Exchange Public engagement Influencing policy Informing professional practice and service delivery Technology transfer Excellent Research Impact Knowledge Exchange Process Result

REF impact challenges: Demonstrating change/benefit as opposed to reporting engagement activity Attributing that change to research Providing robust evidence

History of Art: ‘Impressionism, Scotland and the Art Market Law: Enhancing the effectiveness of youth justice policy and practice Music: The Skoog: a new kind of musical instrument Sociology: Impact of Research on the Financial Crises

Activity (all based on research) Organising an exhibition Providing evidence to government/parliament Writing opinion pieces/essays for the media Developing a new technology Evidence of Impact Audience feedback; social media; ticket/ merchandise sales; news report/ reviews; change in gallery practice/art market. Repeat invitations to present evidence, citations in the debate, decisions being based on the evidence, improved outcomes (e.g.reduced crime) Responses from influential people in public debate, issue being picked up in parliament and/or other public arenas Spin-out/license, reported sales, benefits to company/customers

RepoFringe: The role of Repositories and Open access Potentially important Impact in arts/humanities/social science is often based on “translated” content rather than original research output Social Media Need high level of engagement, reach and/or significance to demonstrate more than mere dissemination Metrics Numeric evidence important – but must provide context Standardised metrics/Altmetrics doesn’t work

The importance of impact 20% of the REF score Determined 26% of the funding in Scotland Funding attracted per annum for next 7 years: 4* case study £45-120K 3* £9-25K 2* £0 4* output: £7- 15K, 3*: £1600-3000, 2* 0 -> Not only “what counts as impact” but “what really makes a demonstrable difference to the world”

Resources www.ref.ac.uk Results and submissions by institution or UoA Searchable database of impact case studies