Presentation from the popular Fast Track Impact training on how to facilitate impact in research institutions. Find our more at www.fasttrackimpact.com/resources

2. Facilitating
research impact

3. Read and discussHow do you manage impact?
1. Manage relationships
2. Manage your impact culture
3. Manage impact generation
4. Manage case studies

4. Read and discuss1. Manage relationships
 Methods for dealing with challenging
conversations (and individuals) and managing
power dynamics
 Becoming more influential in your relationships
with academics
 Designing conversations and workshops with
academics that work without experience or
confidence

5. Read and discuss1. Manage relationships
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6. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
How do you motivate researchers to engage with impact?
Which motivational levers can and should you pull?
Intrinsic motivations
I want:
 To make a difference
 To satisfy my curiosity
 To be creative
 Answers versus process
 Legacy, respect, to gain
indicators of esteem
Extrinsic incentives
I want:
 Research funding
 To get promoted
 Workload allocation
 A top-scoring EIA impact
case study

7. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
Intrinsic motivations
I want:
 To make a difference
 To satisfy my curiosity
 To be creative
 Answers versus process
 Work out how to feed
these to create a culture
that draws people to
impact and inspires
 Get to know anti-impact
opinion leaders to build
empathy
 Adaptively target them
with impact opportunities
most likely to pique their
curiosity or drive their
creativity

8. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
How do you motivate researchers to engage with impact?
Which motivational levers can and should you pull?
Intrinsic motivations
I want:
 To make a difference
 To satisfy my curiosity
 To be creative
 Answers versus process
 Legacy, respect, to gain
indicators of esteem
Extrinsic incentives
I want:
 Research funding
 To get promoted
 Workload allocation
 A top-scoring impact
case study

9. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
Intrinsic motivations
I want:
 To make a difference
 To satisfy my curiosity
 To be creative
 Answers versus process
 Legacy, respect, to gain
indicators of esteem
Extrinsic incentives
I want:
 Research funding
 To get promoted
 Workload allocation
 A top-scoring EIA impact
case study
 For those low self-
esteem, some impact
opportunities can build
confidence
 For those whose over-
inflated egos create
relational carnage,
certain opportunities
may make things worse

10. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
Extrinsic incentives
I want:
 Research funding
 To get promoted
 Workload allocation
 A top-scoring EIA impact
case study
 Easy to deploy at scale
 Each can lead to both
health and unhealthy
impact cultures
 If they are absent your
commitment to impact
may be questioned
 Build these in, but focus
your energy and
communication on the
intrinsic motivations

11. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
Impact culture: the shared
values, beliefs and norms of an
academic community that
support the production of
(significant and far-reaching)
non-academic impacts based
on excellent research, which
then define the collective
identity of that community and
distinguish the strengths and
foci of one institution from
another

12. Read and discuss2. Managing impact culture
Diagnose your impact culture:
 What shared values, beliefs and
norms underpin impact?
 Is there a sense of community and
trust around impact? Where and when
do we talk about impact (e.g. part of
our DNA or only in meetings about
research assessments)?
 Are we producing significant and far-
reaching impacts based on excellent
research? Lots of impact with limited
research versus a research culture
that rarely considers impact
How would you like to see each change?

13. Read and discusswww.fasttrackimpact.com/resources

14. Read and discuss3. Manage impact generation
 Don’t let your impact culture get handed
to you by external agendas - build it on
purpose
 Diagnose your current impact culture
 Work with opinion leaders, appealling to
intrinsic motivations while making it clear
you take impact seriously
 Look long-term (not next assessment
deadline) wherever you can afford to

15. Read and discuss3. Manage impact generation
 Build your impact potential
 Focus on efficiency to overcome time
barriers without instrumentalising impact
 Tools to plan strategically & track as you go
 Training at scale: beyond impact literacy to
relational approach
 Increase your impact potential: if nothing
else, get opportunities for relevant people to
be in the right place at the right time

18. Read and discuss4. Manage case studies
 Identify missing impacts
 Prioritise potential case studies
 Protect your impact culture: give good
feedback

19. Read and discuss3 common missing impacts
• Do a citation analysis to identify
applications
• Research linked researchers and projectsIndirect impacts
• Systematically identify large grants by
former staff
• Research impacts arising from projects
Historic impacts based
on research by former
staff
• Identify bodies of research that cut across
individual researchers’ work
• Match these to existing/emerging issues
• If necessary fund strategic research (gap fill)
• Make an impact plan
Future impacts
applying a body of
research to an existing
or emerging issue

20. High
potential
Low
potential
Uncertain
potential
High
likelihood
Short-list Long-list Long-list
Low
likelihood
Long-list Next EIA
cycle
Next EIA
cycle
Uncertain
likelihood
Long-list Next EIA
cycle
Find out
more
Prioritising impactsPrioritise potential case studies

21. High
potential
Lower
potential
Uncertain
potential
High
likelihood
Priority
support
Reactive
support
Priority
support
Lower
likelihood
Reactive
support
Reactive
support
Reactive
support
Uncertain
likelihood
Priority
support
Reactive
support
Find out
more
Prioritising impactsPrioritise potential case studies

22. Prioritising impacts
 Evidence-based feedback e.g. based on findings
from Reichard et al. (under review)
 Manage feedback
 Give feedback personally
 Encourage non-EIA impacts in context of workload
 Long-term focus: an impact for next EIA cycle?
 Ideas for rewarding impact:
 Workload allocation can be messy for impact
 Internal competitions and awards
 Website features and press releases
Give good feedback

23. www.fasttrackimpact.com/resources

24. www.fasttrackimpact.com
@fasttrackimpact