Impact through Engagement

Description

Demonstrating the external impact of research has never been more important (over half of the REF 2014 case studies featured public engagement). Increasingly researchers are being encouraged to foster meaningful interactions with diverse audiences and, crucially, to demonstrate the value of these interactions. But what does successful impact through engagement look like? And how do you achieve it?

This one-day workshop will guide you step-by-step through the processes to maximise the chances of your work fostering real and long-lasting change when working with the public. Explore best practice in planning; how to connect with the public; understand evaluation processes and discover how engagement fits with REF and funding applications.

The workshop will be led by Dr Jamie Gallagher an engagement trainer and consultant who has worked around the world improving the reach, profile and impact of research in almost every academic discipline.

Objectives

Following this workshop, you should be able to:

• Understand the research impact and engagement landscape

• Deliver high quality engagement with external partners

• Feel comfortable and confident planning your personal impact journey

• Understand the evidence required to demonstrate impact and how to capture and record it.

• Identify key REF reporting narratives

Content

1. Intro to impact

This is a gentle introduction to the impact agenda to frame some of the discussions. Will give an overview of the terminology, organisations and key concepts.

2. Engagement planning

This longer section will take people through the key questions to ask when planning engagement: Why are they doing it, Who do they want to engage with? How are they going to go about it? And what does success look like?

3. Pathways to Impact

How to write a Pathways to Impact statement for funding proposals and approximate timelines for event and intervention planning.

4. REF-able engagement

Looking at how engagement featured in the last REF and how this can be used for effective planning in future rounds.

5. Evaluation

What meaningful evaluation data looks like and how to capture it. Exercises will look at what the most reliable forms of evidence are, how to formulate evaluation questions and forming impact narratives.

6. Open space

Topics which the groups want to discuss. This will be mentioned early in the day allowing people to article areas which they’d like to explore in more detail at any point throughout the day.

Format: The workshop is an interactive session with a mix of talks, activities, individual reflection and group exercises. It is recommended for between 20 and 40 people at any one time. Suggested time is 9.30 – 16.30, with two 15 min coffee breaks and one 45-60 min lunch break.