ABSTRACT
As impact became a ‘trend’ in academic and policy discussions, so, establishing that which constitutes ‘impact’ became a challenge in different contexts. Impact can mean the ‘influence’ of research or its ‘effect on’ an individual, a community, the development of policy, or the creation of a new product or service. Seeing impact as an additional burden clearly missed the core point that making a difference could be part of that which academics, in any subject, were ‘doing’ anyway with their research. Indeed, for most academics we interacted with this was the case, as it was the very reason we engaged with them. So, many researchers needed only gently to understand that impact was something they were ‘doing’ anyway. Moreover, as she also points out, there is a social contract involved between researchers and publics, and in this ‘two-way’ relationship researchers benefiting from public funds have a ‘duty’, some of the time, at least, to help ‘make the world a better place.’
