From the IHA Impact in the Humanities event 8 June held in QUB and co-sponsored by InterTradeIreland. Panel One: Lessons regarding Impact from REF 2014 What can the experiences of Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster tell us about how HEIs should engage with Impact case studies, in exercises such as REF?

1. LESSONS REGARDING
IMPACT FROM REF2014
Professor MícheálÓ Mainnín
Modern Languages,QUB

2. CASE STUDIES FROM SML
•3 in total:
•Cultural Identity in a Global Brand:
Ibarra Real & Microsoft
•TheatreTranslation & Cultural
Encounter
•Shared Spaces & Names of Places

3. THEATRETRANSLATION &
CULTURAL ENCOUNTER
•new thinking on representation of the
foreign in translation for the theatre
•maintenance of cultural essence in
translation for the stage and guarding
against excessive domesticisation

4. BENEFICIARIES
•theatre companies, audiences, publishing
houses, authors
•corroboration:
•playwright (work opened up to new audiences)
•publisher of translations
•London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts

5. IBARRA REAL & MICROSOFT
•fashioning a distinctive Spanish font
for contemporary print & digital
media
•creation of a typographic identity
through revival of an 18th century
typeface

6. BENEFICIARIES
•print and media producers & publishers; IT and
graphic designers; museums & cultural
organisations;
•corroboration:
•curators
•graphic designer
•arts organisation

7. SHARED SPACES & NAMES OF
PLACES
•origins and meanings of local place-names
(c.30,000 items)
•enhanced public understanding of aspects of
language and history
•enrichment of cultural life: free online corpus
and mapping
•civic society: linguistic diversity & shared space

8. BENEFICIARIES (1)
•government & cultural organisations; local
history & community groups
•corroboration:
•N. Ireland Assembly: shared future agenda
•Belfast City Council: cultural diversity

9. BENEFICIARIES (2)
•Land & Property Services (OS): community
outreach
•Lough Neagh Partnership: development of the
amenity, addition of strand to enrich cultural life
•Historic Monuments Council (DoE):
identification of archaeological sites and
provision of contextual information

10. NIPNP: LESSONS LEARNED
•project with key objective of public
understanding
cultural diversity: shared space
economic benefits: creative economy and the
business of culture & tourism

11. VARIETY OF IMPACT
•cultural life, education, civic society and public
discourse
•overlapping and unanticipated domains
•beneficiaries & audiences: government
departments & agencies; NGOs, cultural &
community organisations; creative industries &
tourism; publishing & IT

12. SCALE OF IMPACT
•local, national and international
•combination of these; benefits in various
directions
•further unrealised potential
•implications for research and HEIs
•implications for government, NGOs, etc: policy,
strategy and funding

13. PATHWAYSTO IMPACT
•planned from the outset:
•researchers & users in partnership (NIPNP)
•organic growth:
•research within the academy; developed and
exploited beyond the academy

14. CONCLUSIONS
•can/should humanities engage with impact?
•is it worth it?Yes!
•takes our research beyond the academy
•increases visability for discipline
•places it on the radar of other stakeholders with
consequent political and other benefits

15. STRATEGY
•foster culture among staff, PDRAs, PGRs
•increase projects with impact component
•embed impact in management systems
•appraisal & mentoring
•creation and allowance of time
•support in financial terms

16. ENGAGEMENTWITH
STAKEHOLDERS
•who are they?
•how might they be involved?
•have they access to results?
•what has been transformed?
•how might relationships be
maintained/sustained/maximised?

17. CHALLENGES
•humanities research where there is much more
by way of individual as opposed to team activity
•‘buy-in’: involving everybody in thinking about
impact and sharing the load
•time involved and dangers of losing touch
with/sight of underpinning research

18. EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
•adequate evidence and proof of impact?
•retracing steps not desirable
•archive and mechanisms for collection of
evidence at the time
•fair crediting of work outside HEI and
‘education’ of stakeholders

19. REFERENCES
•QUB Impact Case Studies:
www.qub.ac.uk/home/ResearchandEnterprise/O
urImpact/
•Northern Ireland Place-Name Project (NIPNP):
www.placenamesni.org