WHAT IS IMPACT?

Impact is the positive impact that university research can have upon people's lives. Impact arising from university research requires a lot of time and effort for many people involved including, researchers, impact specialists, engagement specialists, business partnerships specialists, community partners etc.

Impact is often described as being of 'benefit to' or an 'impact on' and/or a change to some 'thing' such as a practice or policy relating to the following areas -

• society and culture
• economic growth, jobs and skills
• mental and physical health and wellbeing
• digital inclusion
• biodiversity and sustainability
• climate change and behaviour change

Impact can be hard to 'track' and monitor because it is not usually linear - it does not follow a specific and/or straightforward and/or predicable pathway. Instead impact ebbs and flows, peaks and troughs and is often dependent upon many people and many factors.

Like a pebble in a pool, impact from university research can ripple out and then create multiple streams in different directions. The timescales for this can be very variable, with impact arising from university research fairly quickly (weeks/months) or taking a longer time (many months/years).

For more information on Impact, please visit our Impact Academy Webpages

Warwick Impact Academy

What does 'impact' mean in a university context?

For universities, impact largely relates to the positive impacts that research has BEYOND ACADEMIA.

This means ensuring that university research does not stay in academic papers and at academic conferences but instead, gets 'out there' and creates positive change.

We often speak about impact in relation to research development, which means we want to develop our research in ways that will help it to have an impact. This could mean developing new research, or continuing to develop existing research in different impactful ways.

All impact is meaningful, whether it's a significant impact for a small number of people or a 'smaller' impact upon a larger number of people.

We hope that CovenTRY CollaborACTION Knowledge ExCHANGE Community helps to connect people and projects in ways that help to speed up the impact pathways locally, getting research 'out there' and working together to undertake new research that will have impact woven into it from the very beginning.

WP1: The Community

Lead: India Holme working with the Operational Team, Advisory Board, Steering Committee and other colleagues.

WP1 is focussed on developing the community, research impact, research development, research engagement and network development.

WP2: Events/Communications

Leads: India Holme and Marie Clews working with the Operational Team, Advisory Board, Steering Committee and other colleagues.

WP2 is focussed on organising project events, workshops and communications - online and in person. Utilising social media and working closely with local creative experts.

WP3: The Research

Leads: Haley Beer and Adela Glyn-Davies working with Mark Scott and Roze Navab, the Operational Team, Advisory Board, Steering Committee and other colleagues.

WP3 is focussed on a piece of research related to the research question - 'how to further close the research-to-policy gap in Coventry?'

Principal Investigator Project Manager

India Holme (she/hers)

Regional Research and Impact Development Manager

India works in University of Warwick Professional Services and is based in Research and Impact Services as a member of the Impact Team.

Born, raised and living in Coventry.

About India...

India is currently working at the nexus of research development, impact and engagement, across all three Faculties, with a focus on Coventry and Warwickshire. Prior experience of working at a Local Authority with a BA in Politics and Philosophy and MA in International Law and Politics, both from the University of Sheffield.India is an experienced inter/transdisciplinary project/programme manager (15 years+) with expertise in relationship building, research engagement/exchange/translation, working with arts and cultural organisations, freelancers, third/voluntary/public sectors. India loves ideas, people and research and connecting them in sometimes unexpected ways, a big fan of participatory research and the phrase 'nothing about us without us', India has a personal interest in neurodiversity research and related projects.

Co-Investigator Research Lead

Haley Beer

Associate Professor of Operations Management, Warwick Business School

Co-Investigator Research Lead

Adela Glyn-Davies

 

Research Fellow

Research Assistant

Roze Navab

PhD student at Warwick Business School and Programme Manager at the Highlife Centre (2-3 hours per week)

Project Coordinator

Marie Clews

Project Poet and Spoken Word Artist

Animator

Joshua Leach

Coventry based animation artist and workshop facilitator - to see an example of Josh's work please see these projects - Co-creating energy efficiency in Foleshill: A collaboration between artists, researchers and the community in Coventry and Retrofit Rocks! Creating Sustainable Communities

Videographer

Adom Agyapong

Working with John Bernard, Adom shot Lost Museums.Heading

All the pieces of the puzzle...

We are brining together 4 key communities -

• Researchers and University Staff
• Coventry City Council Policy Makers and Practitioners
• CV postcode Voluntary and Third Sector Organisations
• Local creatives

Coventry City Council Theme Leads

Biodiversity and Sustainability: Simon Newell