Impact case story is a narrative which describes how research, conducted during a specific time-frame at a named institution, resulted in a change, had an effect on or benefited the culture, the economy, the environment, health, public policy, quality of life or have generated other societal effects, using qualitative and quantitative evidence.
What is impact
According to the UK's system for assessing the excellence of research (REF), impact is "an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life". In other words, it is the contribution that research makes to the society at large, beyond the contribution to academic research. As such, the sphere of impact encompasses a wide variety of areas and may address diverse target groups in local, national or international settings.
The Department of Innovation and External Collaboration (AIS) at UiS has taken the initiative and responsibility for documenting the research impact of selected projects. The purpose is to:
- Illuminate the significance and added value of the research at UiS to the outside world
- Fulfill the university's mandate according to The Development Agreement with The Ministry of Education and Research (Kunnskapsdepartementet) which requires us to describe the innovation and societal effects of research at UiS regularly
- To systematically document and highlight the social contribution of research at UiS and thereby "put UiS on the map" when it comes to international rankings of universities based on impact, such as Times Higher Education Impact Rankings
The projects are selected through consultation with the faculties at UiS. The process starts with introductory meetings with the leadership group at a specific faculty where AIS calls for input on projects that may be relevant to follow up for impact case story. The faculty will then take the request further to its affiliated departments and research groups and send a list of potential projects. AIS conducts a preliminary examination of the nominated projects in relation to their outcomes and social effects as well as the maturity of their impact (it is desirable that the underlying research for impact cases was completed a couple of years ago since it often takes time from the research is carried out until a change occurs). Finally, one project will be selected and the impact documentation process starts with a meeting with the project's key researchers at UiS.
It is the responsibility of AIS to develop and publish the case stories. However, we require input (e.g. publications, reports from the project) and feedback along the process which enhances the quality of case stories through collaboration. Below are some of the methods that we use for documenting the impact:
- Interview with involved researchers and informants
- Interview with selected target groups in the project and user surveys
- Testimonials from target groups
- Video, infographics, podcasts and other types of multimedia content will be used to complement the text in the case story
Department of Innovation and External Collaboration