Reconceptualising research impact: reflections on the real-world impact of research in an Australian context

ABSTRACT

A focus on research impact is influencing the way research is undertaken in Australian higher education institutions. Research activities are planned, funded, conducted, assessed and reported in a way that highlights the real-world impact of research on society. The contemporary prioritisation of research impact, beyond scholarly contribution, reflects a logic model approach to understanding impact that may not adequately reflect the entwined nature of how research achieves impact within and outside academia. This article presents the results of a study conducted with researchers in a regional Australian university to explore the lived experience of research impact. The findings suggest a new definition of research impact as the process whereby research knowledge makes a difference to the knowledge beneficiary. Reconceptualising research impact as a process presents an alternative perspective for explaining how research achieves real-world impact, and helps to address the limitations of logic model approaches. A process-orientation to understanding how research achieves impact acknowledges the indirect, intangible, unexpected and endless influences of research that may be difficult to anticipate and demonstrate.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education policy
• research impact
• Australia
• academic identity
• qualitative research

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for comments provided by two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Joanne Doyle http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7431-5564

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE) [grant number CRN2011:06].