Impact FAQ
Pure Impact Module
How do I know what to record as an ‘activity’ and what to record as evidence of impact?
Are my impact records visible to others?
Should I create a separate impact record for each piece of impact evidence attached to my research?
Should I be recording my impact evidence in a specific way if I know it may be submitted to the REF2021 as an impact case study?
How do I log impact if it is a collaborative research project?
What is classed as evidence of impact?
What if my research gains impact before I have published outputs?
What is the ‘Associated ID’ tab for?
How do I know what to record as an ‘activity’ and what to record as evidence of impact?
As a researcher, you may be collecting different kinds of ‘evidence’ on a regular basis. The activity module in Pure allows you to record your participation in parliamentary meetings, presentations at industry conferences and other activities you conduct in order to disseminate your research. This module should be used to record any translational (dissemination) activities and the impact module should be used to record the impact (beneficial change) which may have occurred as a result of your research.
In most cases, once you have identified the most appropriate type of activity using the drop-down menus in the Pure modules, the logging of this should be self-evident. If you are unsure about where to store something please contact the Pure team pure@hud.ac.uk
Are my impact records visible to others?
Only staff with administrative rights on Pure may review or report on impact records as they are considered to be restricted material. Currently, this is the Pure administration team based in Research and Enterprise. Records may be viewed in order to ensure that information is being stored correctly and to assist in preparation of the REF impact case studies.
However, impact records are not accessible to the public or to other Pure users, in line with data protection laws and due to the fact that many records may be attached to multiple individuals.
Should I create a separate impact record for each piece of impact evidence attached to my research?
As each research project is unique, there are no prescribed rules on how to link impact records to your research. If you choose to, you can have several impact records related to one output or several pieces of impact evidence linked to one impact record.
If there is a possibility of your work being developed into a REF impact case study, it is likely that you will have some idea of what you will be focusing on in the case study narrative in relation to the strength of evidence and so it is advisable to log your impact in a way that reflects this. For example, if your work has had impact at both a national and an International level, you may want to create separate records for this so that you can define the two. Whichever way you decide is best to record your impact, the most important thing is that you log all your evidence in a way that is easy to retrieve and makes sense to you.
Should I be recording my impact evidence in a specific way if I know it may be submitted to the REF2021 as an impact case study?
If you are creating an impact evidence record which you know will be included in the next REF submission, please add ‘REF2021’ in the keywords section. This allows relevant records to be filtered and makes it easier to retrieve them when required.
If you would like to store your draft impact case study in Pure, this can be added as a file in ‘impact evidence’ within the impact record. However, please be aware that it is not a working area, so each time you revise the draft it must be uploaded and the old version should be deleted.
How do I log impact if it is a collaborative research project?
You can log several people to an impact record and a piece of impact evidence, so please include relevant colleagues when logging your record. Please ensure you gain written permission from an individual if attaching them to a record, unless their name is already published in an output, minutes or relevant document that is in the public domain.
Colleagues from external organisations may also be added where this is appropriate.
What is classed as evidence of impact?
Evidence of impact is dependent on the type of impact you are seeking to demonstrate from you research and the impact indicators you have identified from this. Anything that demonstrates that your work has contributed to a change- (e.g. in policy or legislation, societal understanding or to working practices) could be considered to be evidence of impact.
There are numerous types of impact evidence, including economic, cultural, environmental or an impact on quality of life. Impact evidence can be a reduction in harm/ negative outcome or a beneficial change.
Evidence data may include emails or testimonials from events or conferences at which you were speaking about your research, see XXX to find a list of types of evidence that each of the REF2014 main panels considered to be relevant to their subject areas. This is subject to change when the new criteria are published but provides some framework when considering what type of evidence to capture.
What if my research gains impact before I have published outputs?
This can still be recorded within the impact module but please ensure that you outline that this is the case in the section that describes the underpinning research. It is also important to remember to link this record to your output when it does get published and logged on Pure.
What is the ‘Associated ID’ tab for?
Currently, this tab cannot be removed from the module although we hope to do this in future updates. Please ignore this as it is not one that is used at the University of Huddersfield.
