Introduction

An Impact should describe a change, effect or influence on a non-academic beneficiary. Information about past, current and future impacts can be recorded in Pure.

Impact records are used to collect information on the impact of our research. Impact records are created for internal use only and are not displayed on the Royal Holloway Research Portal. Pure is a secure system and impact records will only be visible to the record creator, linked individuals and staff with admin or Editor rights.

Benefits of creating an impact record

There are a number of reasons why it is good practice to keep track of the impact your research has on society. By adding an Impact record to Pure you can:

• Create a record that can be used to support your annual review meetings and promotion applications
• Create a record that can be useful to refer to when completing funder reports (like researchfish)
• Contribute to the evidence base for College support and investment in the lead up to the Research Excellence Framework submission

Adding an impact record

Log into Pure, and select the plus sign beside 'Impacts' to create a new record and fill in the template.

When adding your impact record:

• complete mandatory fields marked with a red asterix
• add as much information as possible
• add in colleagues who have contributed to the impact by selecting 'add person' under the particpants heading
• leave 'files' and 'ID's' section empty
• make links under 'Relations' to your other content in Pure
• ensure the visibility of your record is set to 'restricted'
• remember to save your record before you close it

More guidance is available in the 'Adding Impact in Pure' user guide

Note

We understand that by nature Impact often arises from collaborative research. We recommend creating one impact record for the activity and adding collaborators to this record. You will need to agree for one person to initiate the record and add in collaborators.

The impact records in Pure are not the same as a REF impact case study. They are covering some of the same key considerations but REF impact case studies are presented in a different format. You can see examples on the REF2021 Impact database.