Tips for your application: Impact

Focusing on impact at an early stage makes applications more targeted and helps to identify projects with great potential. In other words, impact-based thinking enhances the relevance of research and increases the chances of securing funding and generating societal value.

So in order to write a successful application, it’s essential that you write a precise ‘impact’ section. Here at the Research Support Unit, we’ve put together some useful tips to help you do this.

1. Know your target audience
Research impact can generally be defined as the effect your research has on both academia and society at large. However, you should be aware that different funders work with different definitions. So it’s important to understand how the funding organisation in question defines impact before you try to describe the significance of your research in your application.

2. Understand why impact is being assessed
The funding organisation is interested in how your project will create value beyond its lifetime. More specifically: Will the project benefit society, the economy, the environment or future research directions? 

Assessors use the ‘impact’ section to understand why your project’s results are important, and to assess whether the project can support policy change, innovation, economic growth or improve quality of life. So you should always make sure you can answer the following questions: Who benefits from your research – and how?

3. Establish a clear link between results, outcomes and impact
Demonstrate how your results (e.g. knowledge, tools or methods) will be put into practice and generate short-term outcomes (e.g. changes in practice), and how these outcomes will lead to long-term impact. Be clear about who will use the results, how they will be used, and how you will document progress through measurable indicators.

Examples of how funders define impact

Funding organisations define impact in different ways, depending on their mission, policy goals and the types of research they support. Here are some examples:

Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe has nine Key Impact Pathways, which are divided into three categories: scientific, societal and economic impact. 

Scientific impact is:

• Creating high-quality new knowledge
• Strengthening of human capital in R&I
• Fostering diffusion of knowledge and open science 

Societal impact is:

• Addressing EU’s policy priorities and global challenges through R&I
• Delivering benefits and impact through R&I missions
• Strengthening the uptake of research and innovation in society 

Economic impact is:

• Generating innovation-based growth
• Creating more and better jobs
• Leveraging investments in R&I

Innovation Fund Denmark
Impact is assessed on the basis of expected societal and economic effects, as well as on the project’s ability to create long-term value for both society and the participating organisations. The assessment is based on the following criteria:

• Contribution to growth, employment and value creation in Denmark through research and innovation activities.
• Societal impact and contribution to addressing specific challenges in the short, medium and long term.
• The ability to meet an identified or latent need, or to leverage new opportunities.
• The value created for the project partners, including organisational, financial and any commercial benefits.
• The readiness of the market and society to adopt the project’s solutions, as well as the activities that ensure their relevance and implementation.
• The potential for spin-off innovation and value creation in other sectors, industries or areas of application.

Danish National Research Foundation
The Danish National Research Foundation’s primary focus is on research excellence. This means that impact is primarily assessed based on the project’s potential to generate groundbreaking new knowledge and long-term societal effects through:

Research impact:

• Fundamental research breakthroughs that advance the frontiers of research and transform existing received truths, theories or paradigms.
• Strengthening existing research communities or establishing new ones in Denmark.
• Building strong national and international partnerships across institutions and disciplines.

Societal impact:

• The potential to develop solutions to major societal challenges.
• The likelihood that the research will lead to new technologies, methods or solutions of broad societal significance.
• Involving relevant businesses and other societal stakeholders where this can strengthen the development and implementation of solutions to societal challenges.

Remember: you’re always welcome to contact us at the Research Support Office if you need any help. And keep an eye out for our upcoming instructional videos on impact and other topics.