The Research Impact Handbook PDF
Preview The Research Impact Handbook
The Research Impact Handbook Mark S. Reed First published 2016 by Fast Track Impact www.fasttrackimpact.com St Johns Well, Kinnoir, Huntly, Aberdeenshire AB54 7XT © 2016 Mark S. Reed and Fast Track Impact Ltd The right of Mark S. Reed to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This book should be cited as: Reed, M.S. (2016). The Research Impact Handbook. Fast Track Impact. ISBN: 978-0-9935482-0-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-9935482-1-5 (ebk) Cover design by: Anna Sutherland To Hazel, Alfie and Isobel, in the hope that your incurable curiosity is never cured Contents 1 Introduction Part 1: Principles to underpin your impact 2 The impact philosophy: five principles to underpin your impact 3 Principle 1: Design 4 Principle 2: Represent 5 Principle 3: Engage 6 Principle 4: Early Impacts 7 Principle 5: Reflect and Sustain Part 2: Steps to fast-track your impact 8 Step 1: Envision your impact 9 Step 2: Plan for impact 10 Step 3: Cut back anything hindering or distracting you from your impact 11 Step 4: Get specific about your impacts and the people who can help you 12 Step 5: Achieve your first step towards impact and monitor your success Part 3: Tools and techniques 13 How to work out who is interested in your research: stakeholder analysis 14 How to design events with stakeholders and members of the public 15 How to facilitate events with stakeholders and members of the public 16 How to use social media to drive research impact without wasting your time 17 How to get impact from Twitter, You Tube and LinkedIn 18 How to crowdfund your research to engage with the public 19 How to engage policy-makers with research: a relational approach 20 How to make a policy brief that has real impact 21 How to evidence and write up your impact 22 Conclusion: left hanging (with the right tools for the job) Part 4: Templates and examples Stakeholder analysis template Example event facilitation plan Impact planning tool and example Social media strategy Further reading Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” Robin Williams “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” Buddha “Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.” Hyman Rickover Imagine what might be possible, if we could harness the collective knowledge of every researcher in the world to tackle the challenges facing the world today. We could do amazing things. Researchers are under more pressure today than ever before to demonstrate the economic and social benefits, or ‘impact’, of their work. But we have been trained how to do research, not how to generate impact. This means many of us feel unprepared and out of our depth when we think about working with people who might be interested in our research. It is hard to know where to start. Putting out a press release doesn’t usually do much. Even if the story is taken up widely, knowing how to convert media interviews into real economic and social benefits is a whole different thing. If you have no idea how your research could make a difference, then this book will help you identify practical things you can do to start on a journey towards impact. If you know the sorts of impact you would like your research to have, but don’t have the confidence, skills or ideas to make it happen, this book will give you the tools to move forward with. If you are already making a difference and want to take your impact to a new level, this book will help you refine your practice and become more efficient as a researcher, so you’ve got more time to have an even greater impact. Rather than feel daunted by the challenge, I want to share with you how straightforward (and fun) it can be to embed impact in your research. The principles and steps I will show you in this book will be just as effective if you’re researching medical microbiology or mediaeval monasteries; whether you are a PhD student or a professor. They are based on research I have done with colleagues over the last decade into the way we generate and share knowledge, and they have been tried and tested by researchers I have trained around the world. For many of these researchers, simply understanding how they can achieve impact from their research is a revelation. They discover a new sense of motivation, knowing that the paper or book they are writing won’t just end up on a library shelf gathering dust, but will actually be put into practice or change public perceptions. They feel empowered when they discover the new digital tools that can help them reach out to more people than ever before. For many of the researchers I work with, just discovering how many people are genuinely interested in their work creates a thirst to understand how they can engage with these people more effectively. I think people are often surprised how quickly they can start to realise impacts once they understand a few basic principles and start taking clearly-thought-out, deliberate steps towards impact. People and relationships are at the core of this book. Engaging with people, building and maintaining relationships takes time and patience. This isn’t about clever tricks or ‘easy’ steps, a time-saving app or revolutionary pill that will achieve impact from our research. However, if you build your impact over time, with care and attention, you will find this a very rewarding process. I am passionate about helping researchers to discover how their research can make a difference, no matter how big or small that difference is. Together, if we as a research community can learn how to generate even modest impacts from our work, I believe we can collectively make the world a better place. What is stopping you putting new knowledge into practice? We live in an increasingly networked world in which academic collaborations are growing in size and disciplinary diversity. However, there remain many important barriers that prevent us from putting our knowledge into practice. Putting aside issues of funding, politics and other external barriers for a moment, I believe that the greatest barrier is us. When I train researchers, there are two things that come up time and again. The first is that researchers are trained how to generate and test new ideas,
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