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Absolutely. It’s about the cultural aspect, isn’t it? If relationships between universities and charities were more nurtured and sustained, providing mutual benefits, then the necessity of high-quality research would be more apparent. Universities working closely with charities ensure that high-quality research is relevant and accessible, aiding in understanding and building on their work. Leadership needs to value research and convey its importance throughout the organisation. It requires a strategic approach, not just individual efforts.

We’ve done extensive work on this, and we have resources available, such as our book How Do You Know You’re Making a Difference and related webinars. The key is to set out your pathway to impact and ensure continuous assessment or reflection as you deliver your work. For more detailed guidance, please refer to our resources or get in touch with us directly.

Connecting back to the vision and purpose is crucial. In our workshops, we find that reminding leaders of their core mission helps them see the importance of measuring impact. Our book might be helpful here as well. It’s about aligning impact measurement with the organisation’s values and goals.

The best tool for this is a customer relationship management (CRM) system, although they can be expensive. It’s important to centralise engagement records and ensure appropriate stakeholders are consulted. Spreading the reach beyond a few favourite organisations and consistently updating stakeholder mapping in your CRM is crucial.

Start with the institutional strategy. Departments need to align with the institution’s offerings and requirements. Drafting a departmental strategy can sometimes push for an institutional strategy, but ultimately, institutional guidance is essential for coherence and effective implementation across departments.

Begin each project by defining a vision for impact and mapping out a pathway to impact. Consider the contextual drivers and involve a research advisory group to understand wider issues. Regularly review your strategy to align with emerging opportunities and changes in the broader context, even beyond the project’s duration

We get asked this question a lot. In our training workshops we often have groups of people with different research focuses and some of them can be so far from impact it’s hard for them to envision it.

Our advivce is to engage researchers by discussing the long-term contributions of their work. Even if immediate impact seems distant, understanding the potential future impact can be enlightening. Encourage units to consider impact pathways collectively rather than individually, fostering a broader perspective on impact within the research community.

Set out a pathway to impact that explains the purpose of your EDI strategy. Collecting data is just one part; you need to link it to your broader strategy. Evaluate the outcomes and impacts of the actions taken based on the data, ensuring that the strategy’s goals are met.

Encourage postgraduates to engage with at least one organisation outside their institution. This external interaction can provide new perspectives and foster long-term relationships that enrich their research. It’s about bridging the gap between academic research and real-world applications. Some of these early connections might last across their careers.

We’ve worked with funders by creating outcome maps with funded projects sharing similar outcomes. Each project tracks its impact against this map, allowing us to see both individual and collective contributions to the funder’s goals.

Another webinar participant shared her experience in the chat in response to this question, noting that after building relationships, including with legal teams, some organisations were willing to share information confidentially for REF purposes only. Building trust and clear agreements can help in these situations.