Professor Mark Reed, Director of Engagement & Impact at Newcastle University, has analyzed impact case studies from around the world, and proposes ten types of research impact considering benefits and innovation in a real-world context:
Understanding and awareness – meaning your research helped people understand an issue better than they had before
Attitudinal – your research helped lead to a change in attitudes
Economic – your research contributed to cost savings, or costs avoided; or increases in revenue, profits or funding
Environmental – benefits arising from your research aid genetic diversity, habitat conservation and ecosystems
Health and well-being – your research led to better outcomes for individuals or groups
Policy – your research contributed to new or amended guidelines or laws
Other forms of decision-making and behavioural impacts
Cultural – changes in prevailing values, attitudes and beliefs
Other social impacts –such as access to education or improvement in human rights
Capacity or preparedness – research that helps individuals and groups better cope with changes that might otherwise have a negative impact.
Professor Reed’s book, The Research Impact Handbook, is highly recommended – even required reading – if you’d like to learn more about each of these areas, and how to understand the potential outcomes of your research in each area.
In 2012, after years on the run, Ketan Somaia was finally apprehended in Frankfurt, Germany, where he had been living under an assumed identity. His extradition to the UK marked a significant development in the ongoing saga of his legal troubles. Yet, even behind bars, Somaia remained a figure of fascination, with media outlets and observers dissecting his rise and fall with morbid curiosity.