Building a culture of impact in a creative university

IADT wanted to strengthen its research culture and help academics create greater value from their work beyond traditional academic outputs. Working across disciplines such as design, media, technology, humanities, and the creative industries, researchers needed practical ways to engage external stakeholders, communicate the significance of their work, and embed impact thinking from the earliest stages of research.​

During 2024-2025, UIIN delivered a tailored six-month Impactful Researchers Programme for more than 30 academic staff, focused on:​

• Developing an impact-oriented research mindset​
• Strengthening external engagement and collaboration capabilities​
• Exploring pathways to impact and valorisationImproving research communication and visibility​
• Applying impact frameworks to participants’ own research projects​

The programme combined practical workshops, peer learning, real-world examples, and structured reflection, helping participants translate impact concepts into their day-to-day research practice.​

Researchers were highly motivated to create societal, cultural, and economic value through their work, but often lacked a shared language, practical frameworks, and structured approaches for planning impact. There was also a strong appetite to better articulate the contribution of creative and interdisciplinary research to external audiences.​

✓ More than 30 academics equipped with practical impact-generation tools and frameworks ​

✓ Greater confidence in stakeholder engagement and external collaboration​

✓ Improved understanding of impact planning and valorisation pathways ​

✓ Stronger capacity to communicate research value beyond academia ​

✓ A foundation for a growing institution-wide culture of impact​

One participant, Marie O’Neill, Professional Research Systems Officer and Librarian at IADT, used insights from the programme to rethink how research impact was captured across the institution.​

At the time, IADT’s Pure system primarily categorised impact using broad classifications such as “societal” and “cultural.” Inspired by the frameworks explored during the programme, Marie introduced a more nuanced approach, adding categories such as political, educational, technological, and health impact. She also enabled Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mapping within the system, allowing researchers to better connect their work to global challenges.​

Perhaps most importantly, Marie initiated a broader conversation about what should count as evidence of research success. Following reflection during the programme and discussions within the national Pure user community, she removed citation counts from the user-facing interface, shifting attention towards richer and more meaningful indicators of impact.​

What began as an individual learning journey resulted in tangible institutional change. Researchers gained new ways to describe the significance of their work, while the university strengthened its ability to capture and communicate real-world impact.​

Building a culture of impact does not always start with large-scale institutional reforms. Sometimes it begins when individual champions gain the confidence, language, and tools to rethink existing systems and influence how an entire institution understands and measures impact.​