Reviewed: May 2025
As public funders, charities aim to support impactful research – research that will improve the lives of patients and people living with conditions today and in the future, as well as their carers and loved ones. This can include understanding biological mechanisms and causes of diseases, supporting the development of new treatments and research into how health systems are configured.
Collecting and reporting impact enables charities to assess whether the research they fund is making a difference. It can inform future research strategy and provide concrete benefits to share with the public and key stakeholders.
There are many definitions of research impact. At its most simple it is an effect on or change to something, resulting from the products of research. Some consider it to include knowledge generation and academic impact on a field of research, whereas others focus solely on impact beyond academia.
The reasons for capturing and assessing impact can be summarised as a set of ‘As’:
Advocacy: to make the case for research investments and funding. For example, how research in a specific area benefits society, this can help funders wanting evidence to support their decisions, or to seek evidence for their cause.
Accountability: to ensure accountability to taxpayers, donors and society. For example, providing evidence that money and other resources have been used efficiently and effectively, and to hold stakeholders to account. Metrics (i.e. number of publications, citation index, funding received) can be used to quantify research performance and inform understanding of the value-for-money of funded research.
Analysis: to understand why, how and whether research is effective, and how it can be better supported. For example, what funding is most effective in terms of different outputs and outcomes, including the impact of research? In addition to funding, what conditions are required to deliver maximum benefit from research?
Allocation: to allocate funds based on research impact. For example, prioritising which projects, people and institutions are given funding. The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) is an example of this, as it is used to determine the allocation of public research funding to universities (about ~£2bn a year) through Quality Related (QR) funding.
Acclaim: compare and recognise the value of organisations (such as charities and higher education institutions) and research funded within them. For example, comparing and recognising the value of research at an individual, departmental, institutional or national level. Acclaim can result in prestige, reputation or reward at these different levels, such as university rankings in the Times Higher Education league tables.
Adaptation: steer change in structure, behaviour, culture, research activities and priorities. For example, improving the research culture of an institution through Equity, Diversity and Inclusion programs, such as PhD studentships targeted at minority groups in the UK.
Knowing the main purpose for why they’re demonstrating impact will help a charity determine how they capture and promote research impact. Learn more in our research impact guidance pages.