The Impact module within Pure is useful for capturing, displaying and showcasing the impact of your research.

It can record day-to-day examples of research impact and the evidence of such impacts in research projects. This can be for dissemination to research funders, statutory bodies, the academic community and other interested stakeholders. In addition, Pure links in with other systems including our submission to REF as well as social media and is therefore a useful place in which to collate any evidence around the impact of your research work.

Adding impact to Pure

To add a new impact case study to Pure click  'Add new' on the right hand side of the ‘Personal overview’ page. This will open up a list of options for adding new content, click on ‘Impact’.

Impact template

The Impact template will open, please ensure that all mandatory fields, marked by an * are filled in otherwise you will be unable to save the record.

Guidance on each field to complete:

Impact status

Please use the drop down menu to choose the stage of your impact. An impact record can be:

• “In preparation” - in the sense that impact is expected, but not recorded yet
• “Ongoing” - in the sense that impact will still occur for the impact record
• “Completed” - in the sense that no further impact is expected for that impact record.

Impact title

Try to make your title specific, clear and jargon-free. This should be a meaningful description of what the impact of your research is. In other words what difference has your research made?

Some examples of Impact titles from REF-submitted Impact Case Studies include:

• Promoting Respect for Ethnic Diversity in Preschool Children
• New Eco-Friendly Hybrid Buses for London and Beyond
• Re-assessment of Cancer risk in Barrett’s oesophagus

The REF submission system can cap the number of characters in an Impact Case Study title and, as such, it is worth keeping the title relatively short.

Impact Description

This is a summary of what your research is about and the impact it has had or is having.

Add in the beneficiaries of the research such as general population/cancer patients/community groups and so on.

In the narrative briefly state what specific impacts have occurred. Try to focus on key evidence such as the percentage of a given population (for example, young people) that have benefited from the impact of your work.

Category of Impact

From the dropdown menu select the most relevant descriptions of the ways in which you believe your research has been, or is being, used. (More than one can be selected).

Impact Level

Please input what stage the Impact is at, such as engagement with stakeholders or whether it has been adopted by or has benefited an individual, organisation or group.

Period

Please enter in either specific dates or a period of time.

Evidence

Once you click “Add impact evidence” the following table will appear.

Information and evidence can be uploaded and amended as and when required. A number of file formats can be added as well as links.

Participants and affiliations

Add the names of individuals and organisations both internally and externally that have been involved in the research. Please note that if you list individuals within Queen’s who have been involved in this work then the Pure system will link their profile to the impact entry that you are creating (and vice versa).

Adding Files

When adding files you must select the drop-down box to select if you would like the file to be visible to everyone (Public – no restriction), Campus (Restricted to specific IP range) or Backend (restricted to Pure users).

By clicking on the + icon other data connected to the impact already stored in Pure for example, outputs, projects and so on can be connected to provide an evidence trail to support the impact record. For example you might wish to link a research output that has underpinned this work to the impact record.

Visibility

You can set the visibility of the template to whatever is most appropriate – ‘Public, ‘Backend’, or ‘Confidential’.

You might wish to ‘backend’ the work until you are happy to share it publically through your University webpage.

You can copy the Impact link from the Pure Portal to share information on social media  

Always remember to save the record using the Save button.

If you have any problems with adding information to Pure please contact puresupport@qub.ac.uk

• Download the impact template instructions