Professor Stuart Roper What is Impact? Professor Stuart Roper

‘an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia’.  Analysis found that these wider impacts and benefits often stem from multidisciplinary work. Definition

How do we demonstrate impact? An impact case study is a four-page document describing the impact of research undertaken within the submitting department. It also contains information about the research that underpins the impact that took place.  There are eight Summary Impact Types. These follow the PESTLE convention (Political, Economic, Societal, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) widely used in government policy development. Health and Cultural impact types (otherwise subsumed within Societal) have been added to the six standard categories.  How do we demonstrate impact?

UK higher education institutions (HEIs) submitted 6,975 impact case studies demonstrating the impact of their research on wider society. UK higher education (HE) research has wide and varied benefits on the economy, society, culture, policy, health, the environment and quality of life — both within the UK and overseas. At REF 2014

So….we need to be considering our impact (and potential impact cases) now.