Research Council guidance for Completing the Pathways to Impact

What do I need to write within my application?

Within the Je-S application process, there are several areas where applicants have the opportunity to add to their Case for Support by detailing the contribution that their research can make to the economy and society and the pathways towards realising this.

Impact Summary (4000 characters): should cover potential economic and societal impacts and pathways towards realising that by addressing the following questions:

• Who might benefit from this research?

• How might they benefit from this research?

In making your case, you should consider and explore any potential impacts of the research on society and the economy. Examples of types of economic and societal impacts are described in the RCUK Typology of Research Impacts .

Note: The Impact Summary may be published to demonstrate potential impacts of Research Council funded research. Please ensure confidential information is not included in this section.

Pathways to Impact (up to two sides of A4 attachment): is primarily for detailing the activities which will help contribute to potential economic and societal impacts. It should continue on from the two questions addressed within your Impact Summary by addressing the following question:

• What will be done to ensure that potential beneficiaries have the opportunity to engage with this research?

Plans for engaging with academic audiences may be included, but only where these form part of the critical pathway towards economic and societal impact. This pathway must be clearly articulated.

The following guidance is not designed to be used as a template for completing your Pathways to Impact, but provides an indication of the potential types of activities to consider.

1. Types of Impact activities
   Please note that we do not expect every application to address each of the following bullet points within your Pathways to Impact.

   • Application and exploitation - identify the mechanisms in place for potential exploitation, both commercially and non-commercially: Do you have any specific engagement or collaborative partnership in place to facilitate the reach and potential up-take of the research e.g. to shape policy and practice? How will the outputs and contribution to potential impacts be identified? What structure and mechanisms can you put in place to manage, exploit and protect the intellectual assets and outputs from the research, during and at the end of the grant lifecycle?

   • Communications and engagement – describe the communications and engagement activities with the identified beneficiaries that will be undertaken, for example secondments of research or user community staff; events aimed at a target audience; workshops to provide training or information dissemination; publications and publicity materials summarising main outcomes in a way that beneficiaries will be able to understand and use; websites and interactive media; media relations; public engagement; and public affairs activities.

     How have beneficiaries been engaged to date, and how will they be engaged moving forward? How will the work build on existing links or create new links? Outline activities to work with intermediary organisations or networks.

     Different activities and pathways for realising the potential impact of the research may be appropriate for different groups of beneficiaries depending on their level of engagement.

   • Collaboration and co-production - explain how collaborations and partnerships within the proposed project or research will be managed and will form part of the pathway towards economic and societal impacts, including:

     Roles and responsibilities of all parties in relation to impact; nature of the relationships – e.g. established or newly formed; nature, value and significance of any contributions to the proposed project; and details of any formal collaboration agreements or future plans for collaboration agreements.

     Have the beneficiaries and collaborations been involved with the design of the research to maximise the potential up-take and application of the research?

   • Capacity and involvement – explain who is likely to be undertaking the impact activities, for example:

     The PI or Co/I and named researchers; specialised staff employed to undertake communication and exploitation activities; and technical experts to write publications, web pages and user-friendly interfaces. What previous and relevant experience do they have in achieving successful knowledge exchange and impacts? How will they acquire any additional skills required?

     Are any post-doctoral researchers and PhD students involved with the related impact activities in addition to the research. If so, how will they acquire the skills required?

2. Impact activity deliverables and milestones
   Include timescales for delivering the impact activities set out within your Pathways to Impact. Describe the key milestones during the project and ways to measure the success of the impact activities. For example, monitoring and evaluating the Pathways to Impact every six months, advisory groups to shape future activities, using questionnaires, stakeholder surveys, collecting website statistics and impact activity data and/or conducting exit polls at the end of key activities to determine if the needs of user communities have been met.

3. Summary of resource (for the impact activities)
   Provide a brief summary of the resources required to undertaken the impact activities.

   Full details should be included in the Financial Resources and Justification of Resources sections of the main JeS proforma.

   • Guidance for requesting resources - applicants may request resources within the full economic costs of grants to cover the costs of project specific activities within their Pathways to Impact. Unless applying via STFC, where separate funding schemes for impact activities should be used. Please see STFC guidance for further information.

     Any costs or additional time requested in applications for such activities should be reasonable and fully justified in the application and will be subject to value for money considerations in the assessment of applications in the same way as other directly incurred costs. Please ensure these are documented in the financial summary and also in the Justification of Resources section of the proposal.

   • Eligible costs - can include employment of specialist knowledge transfer staff, consultancy fees, publication and marketing costs, public engagement activity, engagement events, networking activities, people exchange, etc. Please see the RCUK Pathways to Impact FAQ for further information.

Note: the maximum length for the Pathways to Impact attachment is two pages, but it is not expected that all applications will require this level of detail.

Please see the Impact Requirements RCUK Pathways to Impact FAQ , Je-S Helptext for further guidance.

AHRC: www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundedResearch/Pages/ImpactAssessment.aspx
BBSRC: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/apply/impact/funding-impact-index.aspx
EPSRC: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/apprev/preparing/Pages/economicimpact.aspx
ESRC: www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/guidance/applicants/iii.aspx
MRC: www.mrc.ac.uk/transfertoJeS
NERC: www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/pathwaystoimpact.asp
STFC: www.stfc.ac.uk/About/Stats/EI/EIinPRFAQ.aspx