Understandings of ‘research impact’

Dr Lisa Newington (Post-Doctoral Researcher, Imperial College London) approached us to help recruit to a study that sought the views and experiences of people who had previously taken part in health research.

The aim of the study was to understand the positive and negative impacts of being involved in health research from the participants perspective and to use this to help design future research.

Lisa and her team were looking to carry out digital interviews with participants and Research for the Future helped promote this opportunity on our website, in our newsletter and via our social media channels.

Recruitment was extremely successful, and the team interviewed 21 people from across the country.  Analysis of the interviews identified four main themes which describe participants recommendations for researchers:

  1. Optimising research experiences
  2. Connecting health research with healthcare
  3. Personal impacts of research involvement
  4. Capturing research impacts

These recommendations will be used to develop a framework for researchers to use to help record outputs and impacts of future research.

Lisa would like to thank everyone who took part.

 

Further reading