1. The Pathway to Impact
Professor Paul van Gardingen
- Strategic Advisor on Impact to the ESRC-DFID Joint Research
Scheme on International Development
- Director Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme
- UNESCO Chair in International Development
The University of Edinburgh

2. Telling the story
Raw data and primary analysis
rarely delivers impact.

3. Research Excellence

4. Our Starting Point
Research Excellence

5. Excellent Research

6. Building impact involves a journey…

11. The Pathway(s) to Impact
Research projects need to deliver:
Research Excellence
and a credible pathway to
Development Impact

12. 4 W’s
• Who
• How
• What
• When

13. Who?
• Who is (or will be) asking for your research?
– Understand demand.
• Who are your trying to influence?
• Who will use your research?
– Think about non-academic beneficiaries.
• Who will you need to work with to build non-
academic impact?
– Knowledge brokers
– Change enablers
– Champions for change

14. How?
• How will people benefit from using your
research?
• How will you know that your research has
helped to support change?
– e.g. reducing poverty?

15. What?
• What do you need to do to support your
intended beneficiaries?
• What might change as a result of your
research?
– what does “success” look like.
• What should your “impact” process and
products look like?

16. When?
• When are the best times to engage with
beneficiaries, champions for change and
change enablers?
• When (realistically) do you expect to see
change?
• Impact sometimes requires the right
opportunities:
– right person (people), in the right place and
the right time.

17. Sometimes, just try again!

18. The Pathway(s) to Impact
There may be
more than one pathway to impact

19. Impact is all about
changing lives

20. Capacity Building

21. What is Impact?
A REF view…
Several examples of ‘pathways’ from research to impact are
provided in a separate document. These illustrate different
points along the pathways that would be considered ‘impacts’
as opposed to ‘inputs’. (For example, providing advice to a
policy committee is considered an ‘input’. A change to
government policy, influenced by that advice, is considered an
‘interim impact’.)

22. What is impact?
• Impact happens when people’s lives are
changed.
– Policy has impact when it is implemented and
enforced
• Funders may hold views on impact that differ in
subtle ways from what REF currently asks for.
• How do we value and describe impact outside
the UK?
– RCUK impact documentation currently emphasises
impact on the UK and especially the UK economy.

23. Oops!
• What about unwanted impact?
– The climate change research community has
generated excellent researchers, but much of
the policy and business community don’t want
to know or act.
• What about completely unexpected and
unplanned impact?
– Be prepared to adapt and take the
opportunities when they occur.

24. How can we help you?
• ESRC-DFID and ESPA are developing a
common Impact Framework to help
researchers:
– Understand non-academic impact
(Conceptualise)
– Build impact (Getting research into use)
Reaching large numbers of people to make a
Significant difference in their lives)
– Communicating impact (Telling the story)
• http://www.espa.ac.uk

25. A Pathway to Impact
• Designing research for impact.
– Start with the right question!
– What are the evidence challenges?
– Involve beneficiaries and research users in the
design phase.
• Implementing research for impact
– Involve a wide range of stakeholders.
– Capacity building.
• Communication
• Monitoring and evaluation