‘an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.’
UK Research Excellence Framework
Why measure impact?
Knowledge exchange and commercialisation (KEC) teams are historically asked to measure their success in terms of economic impact metrics. This includes income, investment raised, or jobs created from new ventures or collaborations with business.
However, KEC activities can have significant value to society beyond their economic impact, and there is a growing interest to measure and report on this data. In particular, interest in measuring social impact is arising from:
- Increasing interest in commercialisation from the arts humanities and social sciences researchers, where commercial returns are likely to be lower despite high potential for wider impact;
- The sustainability development goals (SDG) agenda, and requirements from research funders to characterise and demonstrate social and environmental impact;
- The emergence of social impact investors and the need to demonstrate social value or social impact strategies for spinouts and startups.
Through our services we can help to answer questions such as:
- What are considered best practice indicators for social and environmental impact?
- How can you build impact measurements and reporting into a KE or commercialisation project?
- What are logic models and theory of change, and how can they be used to build a social impact strategy?
- What do social impact investors look for in a venture?
- What are the differences between social enterprises and other legal structures that can be used to reinforce social impact?
- How to link impact measures with and evaluation and reporting activities?
Talk to us about:
- Training courses and workshops for professional services teams and/or academics
- Commercialisation support help build a social mission and/or impact strategy for a KEC projects or venture
- Consultancy services to help you create an internal framework for tracking and measuring impact from your KEC activities