Impact Tracking Checklist
You MUST record and track impact as it happens. Tracking needs to happen on an on-going basis.
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Advice on impact tracking.
For advice and support on impact tracking, speak to Saskia Gent (s.e.gent@sussex.ac.uk),
Christina Miariti (C.Miariti@sussex.ac.uk) or Liz James (e.james@sussex.ac.uk), HAHP
Director of Research.
The Peer to Peer Impact Support Network has been set up at Sussex to feature colleagues
across the Schools with different types of impact expertise who are willing to have an
informal chat to support researchers in their efforts with impacthttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/rqi/impact/impactsupport
Fiona Allan (f.m.allan@sussex.ac.uk), Research & Enterprise Coordinator, can offer support
for the inputting of impact activities and tracking.
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Detailed information and advice,
including a successful bid library and a
library of case studies from across the
UK submitted to REF2014 available on
the R&E webpages.
There are links to impact information from the HAHP Research Support webpages –
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hahp/internal/forstaff/researchadmin/toolkit
Method for capturing impact and for
storing relevant information.
The different styles for capturing impact (when, how and what) are detailed, here –
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/rqi/impact/toolkit/capturing.
Bid Library - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/development/apply
REF2014 Impact Case Studies - http://impact.ref.ac.uk/CaseStudies/search1.aspx
Excel or Word impact capture templates are available to download from the HAHP Research
Support webpages - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hahp/internal/forstaff/researchadmin/toolkit
VV Impact Tracker – the university has a licence for this software package. Please speak to
Fiona if you are interested in using it for your project.
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Informing your stakeholders or research
users early on that you will need some
form of testimony or evidence of how
they have used your research.
Examples of evidence to look out for are available on the R&E webpages, here http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/rqi/impact/toolkit/capturing
Activity vs Evidence.
Pathways to impact (activities), reach of impact (numbers) and evidence (citations, oral and
electronic feedback, quotes, letters, emails, testimony, questionnaires) is detailed, here http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/rqi/impact/toolkit/capturing
You will also find guidance on collecting feedback to understand your impact as well as
information on indicators for impact.
 Top PI Ian Scoones: Impact takes time so stick at it
Ian Scoones is a research fellow at the UK Institute of Development Studies and director of the ESRC-funded STEPS Centre at Sussex,
and winner of a 2015 ESRC Impact Prize. - See more at:
https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/funding/insight/2015/10/Top-PI-Ian-Scoones--Impact-takes-time-so-stick-at-it-.html
 Research impact: Learning lessons from the REF
Steven Hill, head of policy research at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, says there are six lessons to be learned from
the wealth of analysis on research impact - See more at:
https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/funding/know-how/Impact-and-Dissemination/2015/10/research-impact-learning-lessonsfrom-the-ref.html
 ESRC Impact Prize Winners
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/research/celebrating-impact-prize/
 Sussex Impact Stories
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/impact