Capturing and evaluating impact
Learn how to capture and evaluate the impact of your engagement activities and research outputs.
Capturing the impact of your research outputs allows you to evidence what is changing as a result of your work. This will help to measure and communicate the contribution your research is making to society, which is becoming an increasingly important requirement of funding applications. It is also an opportunity for reflection and growth.
Capturing Impact
The Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team at Edinburgh Research Office (ERO) have written a guide to help you embed evaluation into your project design so you can track and evidence your impact:
How to capture and demonstrate impact guide (EASE login required)
The Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) provide examples of impact and indicators for different fields, which can be useful inspiration even if you are not submitting your work to REF.
Examples of impacts and indicators (EASE login required)
It can be useful to monitor and track who is engaging with your research to know where your research might be making a difference. Altmetric.com is a subscription service, which provides article-level metrics about how research is referenced and shared in a range of social media and in the news.
Guide for academics on tracking attention around your research with Altmetric (EASE login required)
Evaluating Effectiveness of Engagement Activities
Evaluating the effectiveness of your public engagement activities can help you learn from your experiences and also assess the impact of your work.
The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) provide a guide on how to evaluate public engagement projects, which includes a worked example of an evaluation plan.
NCCPE How to Evaluate Public Engagement Projects and Programmes (PDF)
You can find easy-to-use methods for evaluating how your public engagement activities are received with the Little Book of Evaluation Tools from the University of Oxford, Curiosity Carnival:
Little book of evaluation tools (PDF)
The University of Oxford also provide a thorough breakdown of the most appropriate tools to use for different online public engagement with research events:
Guide on evaluating online engagement (PDF)
Contact us
Capturing and evaluating impact of your research is often very individual and needs to be tailored to your specific project. Please contact us if you would like to discuss your work and its impact at: CMVMImpact@ed.ac.uk