Writing an Impact Case Study

So you planned your impact, co-created knowledge, conducted studies, made an impact, and recorded your impact; it’s now time to write it up as a case study for the REF.

Top-scoring impact case studies:

Are significant – did you make a significant difference to people’s lives, businesses’ profits, tourism for the Welsh economy…?
Are far-reaching – has your impact reached different countries, different branches of subject associations, different types of business organisations…?
Are clearly articulated – can your non-academic mum get the gist of the benefits of your work…?
Are convincingly evidenced – did you publish a blog where sixty people read it or did you co-write a report with your stakeholders that was downloaded 5 million times and you were contacted by several news outlets…?
Focus on the benefits and not the pathways to impact – write about what people did as a result of learning about your research, rather than how they learnt about your research…

Ensure you articulate and evidence the significance of your impact. Create a problem statement reflecting significance that you will solve; for example, there was a need for a vaccine to be developed to immunise against COVID19, which was and still is a massively significant problem in the world. By saying your research led to a successful vaccine would solve a significant problem.

Do not write about any benefit to the researchers, institution, or discipline, as this is a given with any research. The REF measures real-world impact (and of course academic and real-world impact overlap).

Consider combining case studies in similar areas if it is likely to strengthen your submission and boost your likely star rating.

Ensure you articulate and evidence the reach of your impact. Also create a problem statement reflecting reach that you will solve. Using the same example, if you created a COVID19 vaccine and managed to supply it to most countries in the world, you have evidenced reach.

Don’t oversell your reach. If you mostly have national or sub-national reach, keep the framing at this level and say why that level is important. When you’ve achieved significance in this area, it may be possible to roll out your impacts on a broader level. However, reach can be on social scales or units and is not necessarily geographical, so check for any unexpected beneficiaries who may be using your research. Identify groups, sectors, or countries that have similar problems that might benefit from your impacts.

Submit the impact and not the pathway. In the ‘Summary’ and ‘Description of Impact’ boxes, the majority of the information should be about the actual impact. What was the benefit and why was this important? Remember, dissemination is not impact.

A few more things to keep in mind…

Assess impact longitudinally – did engagement with stakeholders continue after the original project?

Evidence published by a third party makes it more credible – e.g. a charity that co-authored a report and published it on their website.