Research Impact and Engagement at RIS
The Impact and Engagement team provide specialist knowledge and support to maximise the benefits of our research
The Research Impact and Engagement team supports the Schools and its researchers to transform lives through the creation, sharing and application of knowledge. The team provides expert guidance and training to help researchers generate ideas and plans, so that impact and engagement can be embedded in research from the outset and throughout the life cycle of research.
What we do
We work across all Schools and disciplines supporting a range of activities, from project planning through to post-project evaluation, to ensure our research has a positive benefit in the world.
We work with academic and non-academic staff to support and promote impact and engagement, whether that’s embedding impact and engagement in funding applications, maximising opportunities for engagement in your research, or planning ahead to capture evidence.
The team is responsible for training to build skills, knowledge and awareness around impact and engagement as well as the internal systems and processes to capture and store information about the difference our work makes. We support internal networks for Impact Champions and Public Engagement Professionals to share knowledge and best practice.
What is impact?
Put succinctly, impact is the difference that is made by our research.
Impact from research can occur in all sorts of ways. Impact can be the result of decades of laboratory research into cures or treatments for diseases like cancer or malaria, or it can be the evidence that leads to changes in law affecting everyone in our society. Research impact can be seen in the development of new technologies, products or services and in the creation of jobs - and research impact be seen in new artistic works and in changes of understanding that alter behaviours.
Our research conducted here in Dundee has global, as well as local, impact. Find out more about the:
- Impact of our research
- or contact the team at [email protected]
What is ‘REF’ (Research Excellence Framework) impact?
The REF is the main assessment of research across the higher education sector in the UK and is important in determining both future research funding and our global reputation. The REF process is carried out once every six-to-seven years.
Research impact case studies account for 25% of the REF assessment and describe the practical benefits that result from our research.
Read some of our case study highlights from the most recent assessment:
What is Engagement
Engagement is all of the ways in which we share our work and lies at the heart of the University’s mission to transform lives. As an engaged university, we work with and for communities and organisations of all kinds to support their aims and needs.
Engagement is a two-way process that has mutual benefit for all those involved - our staff and students, and our external partners and audiences. Our engagement activities range from collaborative community events, through to citizen science projects. In 2020, the University was awarded the NCCPE Gold Watermark for Public Engagement. It was the first university in Scotland and only the third in the UK to receive the Gold Watermark, in recognition of our commitment to public engagement.
Find out more about public engagement at the University and ways in which you can get involved:
