What: Workshop on research impact by Prof Jonathan Grant
When: Tuesday 24th of March at 9-13:30 (Please note the changed time due to changes in the flight schedule)
Where: Urbarium, Porthania (1st floor)
To whom: Researchers wishing boost their knowledge on research impact
Registration required! Register here for the workshop
This interactive workshop will explore what is research impact and why it matters, how to design impact into your research projects and how to effectively communicate research findings so that impact is maximised. Whilst the masterclass focuses on policy impact the tools and techniques that will be explored apply to a number of different impact domains and are relevant to all academic disciplines.
The workshop is split into three parts. The first part introduces the challenges and characteristics of getting research evidence into policy and practice drawing off the existing literature, including analysis of the UK REF 2014 impact case studies. The second part then introduces participants to a range of tools that help design impact into the research process, including logic modelling, how to understand the external environment, and stakeholder and power analyses. The third and final session covers how to identify the right ‘questions’ and ‘answers’ to catch the attention of policymakers, how to present research findings in a structured and relevant way to a policy audience, the importance of tone and style, and the various communication channels appropriate to reach policymakers (such as social media and policy briefs).
The workshop is highly interactive and requires participants to craft their own plans for creating policy impact from their research (either for an existing set of projects, or for future ones), and to develop their own communications and engagement plan, practice structuring the main headlines from their research, and if time is available engage in a series of ‘pitches’ designed for a policy audience.
Bio:
Professor Jonathan Grant is the Vice President & Vice-Principal (Service) at King’s College London and Professor of Public Policy at the Policy Institute at King’s. Service has been identified as one of five strategic priorities in King’s Strategic Vision 2029 and encapsulates King’s commitment to society beyond education and research. Jonathan has been at King’s for over six years and was Director of the Policy Institute between February 2014 and 2017.
Jonathan’s main research interests are on biomedical and health R&D policy, research impact assessment, the use of research and evidence in policy and decision making, and more recently higher education policy and issues to do with freedom of expression. Jonathan has significant international experience providing analytical support on the formulation and implementation of R&D strategies in, for example, the UK, Greece, Norway, Qatar, Oman, Australia, Canada and the USA.
Prior to joining King’s, Jonathan was President of RAND Europe between June 2006 and October 2012, where he oversaw the doubling of the organisation's activity in Europe and the establishment of the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research, a joint venture with the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining RAND in 2002, Jonathan was Head of Policy at the Wellcome Trust.