Research Impact News

Hello everyone

For my final newsletter of 2018, here are a few things I've been finding useful that I thought you might enjoy...

Research into policy

Since I was last in touch, I've finished a three-part series of podcast episodes, and written and read a few useful blogs on getting your research into policy:

Listen to my three linked podcast episodes on moving beyond informing policy to becoming more influential in this space:
- I started by tackling some of the big ethical questions that prevent many researchers ever starting to engage in these spaces. To do this, in the first part I discuss four reasons you may be inadvertently manipulating rather than influencing policy. My four point check-list will make sure your policy engagement is on the right side of your morals and help you engage more confidently in challenging policy contexts
- I recorded the second part at the UN climate negotiations in Poland. Listen to my interviews with a researcher who ended up leading a country's negotiations at a UN summit when the chief negotiator he was advising died, the head of climate science for WFF who has the discomfort of being based in the USA and the head of a global initiative to protect peatlands for UN Environment. All three explain ways you can get your research heard at the highest levels, and it is easier than you might think
- In the final episode of 2018 I consider practical ways to both inform and influence policy based on reliable evidence from research. I consider how to take a more relational approach to developing a policy brief and how you can make a "pincer movement" to work from both bottom up and top-down to achieve impacts from research in the policy arena
Last week I did a policy seminar in Westminster about some of my research and adapted a method called "a postcard to your future self" to find out (GDPR compliant) who came along and how we could follow up with them longitudinally to help them achieve impacts and evaluate what happens next. I've updated last month's blog about this method with photos and experiences from the event
If you are interested in getting policy into practice, you may be interested in What Works Now? Evidence Informed Policy and Practice edited by Annette Boaz, Huw Davies, Alec Fraser and Sandra Nutley (I contributed to one of the chapters). It is available for pre-order (released 1 March 2019) and covers all policy areas and many different parts of the world. It is a follow up to the hugely successful What Works? Evidence-based Policy and Practice in Public Services book that was published almost a decade ago (full text available free here)
One of my favourite academic authors on working with policy is Paul Cairney from University of Stirling (he's also a contributor to the What Works Next book) - if you've not seen his work in this space, I highly recommend his blog posts on policy and policy-making, his key policy theory and concepts in 1000 word posts and 1000 second podcasts, and his book on the politics of evidence-based policy
Do you generate impact by connecting people and organisations? A new paper by Stephen Posner and Chris Cvitanovic explains how to evaluate the impact of "boundary spanning" researchers and organisations that connect people across contexts and issues (available free here for a few more days)

REF stuff

My latest REF blog is on how to move your REF impact case study to a new institution (technically you're not allowed to do this, but in reality it is possible and I've shown you how I did it for REF2014)
You probably already know that you can download all the REF2014 case studies that we know received 4* from my website, but not all Units of Assessment are represented in this list, so Stephen Kemp has put together a new list of the top 5 impact submissions in each and every UoA so you can find the best impact case studies whatever your area
I'm regularly asked about how strategic pedagogical impacts are likely to be (outside education) in REF2021, but although there were widespread concerns that these did not score as highly as other cases in 2014, I've not got any evidence to support or contradict this. However, I have recorded a podcast episode about designing and evaluating pedagogical impacts that I think are likely to be highly competitive in REF2021
I'm loving Sally Brown's A-Z of writing an impact case study on LSE Impact Blog
Alternatively, if you're up for some deeper reading, a new edited collection of papers on academic life in the ‘measured university’ includes a paper on emotion and the impact agenda by Jenn Chubb and colleagues, Fear and loathing in the academy? The role of emotion in response to an impact agenda in the UK and Australia

Other (more interesting) impact stuff

Queen Mary University of London's Public Engagement Evaluation Toolkit is now out - I'll be blogging about this with colleagues from QMUL, NCCPE and Dialogue Matters, who I helped develop the toolkit with, in the new year. More soon!
I was on a research funding panel a few weeks ago and recorded a podcast about everything I've learned on the importance of impact to funding success and how you can write more competitive impact sections of a grant proposal
- If you prefer, I recorded a shorter video version of this for an ECR workshop I couldn't make in person
- Don't forget I've got guides on How to write a Horizon 2020 proposal that impresses on impact and How to write a winning pathway to impact and impact summary (for those applying to UK Research Councils)...
- And I'm always looking for new examples I can include in my best practice library of pathways to impact
NCCPE have launched a really useful new guide for researchers, Engaging the public through social media: what works?
Last month on the podcast, I discussed how researchers can become more authentic, and how this can reduce the likelihood of imposter syndrome and help you grow in confidence. To do this, I discussed the daily practice of letting go of who we think we should be and embracing who we are, having the courage to be imperfect, and the need to cultivate compassion with clear boundaries. This is quite a personal episode and has some really deep lessons - I hope you enjoy it!
I am relieved to announce that my long running dispute with Amazon over who sells The Productive Researcher is at last over (they wanted to sell it for me with free P&P, except as the author I had to pay for the promotion and they would take all my royalties in warehousing fees, and in the meantime they ran the promotion anyway, taking people's money and never sending them their books!). With its hand bound cover and full colour photography throughout, The Productive Researcher makes a great Christmas present for academics resolving to work less in 2019. Get your copy here (or read free excerpts here)
Many thanks to those of you who answered my survey last month to inform our website refresh. The top adjectives people chose to describe us were clear, effective, strategic, inspiring and empowering. That's exactly want to be so we'll do our best to reflect this in our design. Full results here

Finally, given the time of year, I've written a Christmas blog that I hope will get you thinking as you go on your holidays: changing how you think about Christmas can change the world. Happy Christmas from all of us at Fast Track Impact!

Mark

P.S. By the time this reaches you I'll be on post-operative sick leave for 5 weeks, so won't be replying to your replies till I'm back towards the end of January

P.P.S. If you've found this newsletter useful, please pass to a colleague and let them know how to sign up for future emails

Mark
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Research England & N8 funded Chair of Socio-Technical Innovation
School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University
N8 Agri-Food, Institute for Agri-Food Research & Innovation and Centre for Rural Economy

Working across the N8 Universities of Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York
Visiting Professor at University of Leeds and Birmingham City University
Research Lead for International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s UK Peatland Programme

www.profmarkreed.com
mark.reed@newcastle.ac.uk
Tel. 07538082343
Twitter: @profmarkreed

Fast track your impact: training for researchers by researchers

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