Research uptake and impact - a snapshot

As university research comes under ever-increasing scrutiny, there is growing recognition that the effective management and administration of this research can increase its uptake and impact still further. But what challenges are universities facing in this field? What could be improved to ensure university research can be taken up, and have the greatest impact?

In line with the growing pertinence of research uptake (1) and research impact (2) in universities, we included a few questions in our 2019 ACU measures survey to understand how our members are approaching these areas. With a total of 116 institutions responding, we can draw a snapshot of the provision and requirements in universities, as well as some of the drivers and challenges around research uptake and impact, including:

• Overall fewer than 50% of institutions reported that their researchers are required to have uptake/ impact plans in order to access internal funding for research.
• The common drivers for uptake and impact reported by institutions were: career progression and the development of researchers; external funding/external policy and societal benefit.
• The common challenges for uptake and impact reported by institutions were: receptiveness/readiness of target stakeholders; staff capacity and funding.
• The responses tentatively indicate that more institutions are confident of their uptake efforts, than are coordinated/driven for uptake atution level. However, more institutions are coordinated/driven at institutional level for impact, than are confident of their efforts in this area.

Researcher development and career progression

Overall fewer than 50% of institutions reported that their researchers are required to have uptake/impact plans to access internal funding for research, though (noting the small sample size of respondents) there were differences between countries. In UK and India these figures were over 50%. 81% of UK universities reported for uptake and 60% for impact, and for India 69% reported for uptake and 53% for impact. In other countries it was noticeably lower – Nigeria (uptake 52%; impact 47%); Australia (uptake 30%, impact 33%) and South Africa (uptake 11%, impact 11%).

Similarly, overall fewer than 55% of institutions reported that uptake/impact is a factor considered in promotion criteria for their researchers. In UK and India these figures were over 65%. 81% of UK universities reported for uptake and 66% impact; and in India it was 69% for uptake and 76% impact. In other countries the figures were noticeably lower – Nigeria (52% uptake, 52% impact); South Africa (0% uptake, 22% impact) and Australia (50% uptake, 41% impact).

However, in the free text responses, institutions frequently reported the area of career progression and the development of researchers as a driver for both uptake and impact.

Drivers for Uptake and Impact

The drivers reported by institutions, common to both uptake and impact were: career progression and the development of researchers; external funding/external policy and societal benefit. However, there were differences in the main drivers reported for uptake and impact.

The most frequently reported drivers for uptake were career progression and the development of researchers and societal benefit. The most frequently reported drivers for impact were external funding/external policy and institutional strategic plan. Noting the small number of participating institutions, these responses tentatively indicate that the drivers for impact are more top-down than those for uptake.

Challenges for uptake and impact

The challenges common to both uptake and impact were: staff capacity; funding and receptiveness/ readiness of target stakeholders. Some universities based in rural locations also mentioned access to stakeholders as particular challenges for uptake and impact. However, there were differences in the main challenges reported for uptake and impact.

The most frequently reported challenges for uptake were funding and receptive readiness of target uptake stakeholders. The most frequently reported challenges for Impact were understanding/measures for Impact and funding.

Interestingly, though institutions mentioned their strategic plan and improving the institutional profile as drivers for impact. Understanding impact/measures for impact was the most frequently reported challenge for impact. Conversely for uptake, institutions did not report understanding measures for uptake as a challenge, though they did report the lack of an institution wide strategy for uptake as a challenge.

Noting the small number of participating institutions, these responses tentatively indicate that more institutions are confident of their uptake efforts, than are coordinated for Uptake at Institution-wide level. However, more institutions are driven at institutional level for impact, than are confident of their efforts in this area.

Figure 1: The percentage of institutions that provide support or havuirements for Research Uptake and Impact, in the following areas.

Sample size: 116 including - Africa West (23), Asia South (21), Europe (17), Africa Southern (14), Australia & NZ (13), Asia South East (8), Canada (6), Africa East (6), Caribbean (5), Pacific (3).

Figure 2: The Drivers and Challenges for Uptake and Impact most frequently* mentioned by institutions.

Sample size: 48, including - Africa East (1), Africa Southern (9), Africa West (9), Asia South (14), Asia South East (2), Australia & NZ (3), Canada (3), Caribbean (1), Europe (5), Pacific (1).

The ACU has more than a decade of experience working within the field of research management within the Commnwealth, and is at the forefront of the emerging discipline of research uptake management. Our work in this area provides resources, and actively supports the development of the external environment to enhance related work taking place within ACU member institutions.

* When grouping and analysing the free-text responses, we included in the graph areas mentioned by five or more institutions only.

[1] Research uptake: focuses on practical and sustainable approaches to getting research into use. Research uptake requires specialist individual capacity, aligned organisational structures and strategic management processes to optimise conditions for the dissemination, uptake and application of scientific evidence, including facilitating evidence-based policymaking. 

[2] Research impact: is the change we can see (demonstrate, measure, capture), beyond academia (in society, economy, environment) which happen because of our research (caused by, contributed to, attributable to) https://inorms.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/impact-provider-criteria-final-181217.pdf