Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off your first 2 months of Unlimited Monthly. Start your subscription for just £29.99 £19.99. New subscribers only. T&Cs apply

Find out more
Home / Business & Management / Research Impact: Making a Difference / Demystifying research impact

Demystifying research impact

How research impact makes a difference to society, to the economy, to human understanding, and the state of our world.
View transcript
8.3
ROSE-MARIE BARBEAU: Universities have always made a difference to society, to the economy, to human understanding, and the state of our world. We just, perhaps, haven’t always been as robust as we could have been at showing that. And now we, as institutions and individuals, need to do that. But, recently, impact, as a term, has become so overanalyzed and so overemphasised that it seems to assume these gigantic proportions overshadowing every other priority. So our aim with this course is to demystify the word impact and to return it to its proper size and place.
49.4
We want to show you that impact is not a set of new tasks that sits separate to and parallel to your research and teaching, competing with those things for your limited time and resource, and generally causing stress. It coexists with those things. But it starts with understanding.
The aim of Week 1 is to gain a broad understanding of what is meant by research impact in the Higher Education sector and why it is important for both wider society and the economy.

This session will be led by our guest educator Rose-Marie Barbeau, who is the Research Impact Manager at the University of Glasgow. Rose-Marie’s remit is wide-ranging: she works with researchers and academic support staff from all disciplines across our four colleges (Arts; Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences; Science and Engineering; and Social Sciences).

Key messages

• A need exists to highlight what academia has to offer for society at large, both as individuals and institutions

• Research impact should not be viewed as a separate agenda – it coexists with traditional academic activities such as research and teaching

Want to keep learning?

This content is taken from The University of Glasgow online course
Research Impact: Making a Difference
View Course
See other articles from this course
This article is from the online course:

Research Impact: Making a Difference

Created by
Join Now
This article is from the free online

Research Impact: Making a Difference

Created by
Join Now
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now

Register to receive updates

  • Create an account to receive our newsletter, course recommendations and promotions.

    Register for free