Post REF 2014, the UK Higher Education sector is looking at how to manage impact more effectively. With eyes towards REF 2020, institutions are keen to develop more strategic, standardised and systematic approaches to impact and avoid repeating the difficulties of collecting information retrospectively. Coventry University are gathering an increasing reputation for expertise in impact planning, measurement and capture through their bespoke impact capture system.
The ‘Embedding Research Impact at Coventry’ (ERIC) system was developed from a small JISC funded project in 2012. A team consisting of business development, information management and academic staff collaborated to produce a prototype system with the existing information management system. The aim was to produce an academic-self service system to allow staff to plan the impact of their research and store the associated evidence. Following a successful pilot with the Applied Research Centre in Health and Lifestyle Interventions, the Vice Chancellor commissioned the development and rollout of the system across the whole university. For the past year we have been redeveloping the system to support academics across all faculties plan impact from the pre-award stage and capturing over time.
Coventry have seconded an academic (Julie Bayley, Health Psychologist) as the central impact officer and to lead the impact work. This approach helps to ensure the system and associated strategy meets academic needs and helps to strengthen the process of embedding. This academic/research support crossover post is also leading to academic outputs on impact such as a recent LSE blog and International Conference paper at EuroCRIS 2014.
We will be using this blog to update on our progress and share lessons learned. If you want to learn more contact Julie (j.bayley@coventry.ac.uk)
Check back soon!
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