RESEARCH IMPACT CONSULTING
Unique and inspiring solutions
Our research impact consulting is..
Research impact consulting is a specialized field dedicated to maximizing the real-world significance of academic and scientific research. It plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and its practical applications in industry, policy, and society.
How we can help
We offer a range of research impact consulting services. These services include: research impact grant reviews, research impact evaluation, grant writing support, support with research promotion and tenure applications, and evaluation of funding bodies return on investment from research.
Research Impact Grant Reviews
Every part of your grant needs to have an impact, not just the part where they ask you about it. We help you, not only write about your prospective and retrospective impact but to write a compelling and robust grant application to best position your idea.
Current & upcoming grant rounds
Our impact consulting helps with:
- Reviews of knowledge translation and research impact plans in your applications
- NHMRC Investigator grant or Synergy Grant Impact Case Study track record sections
- ARC Discovery Projects and DECRA grants
- Department of Health NSW Translational Research Grant Scheme applications
- Reviewing any grant with a translation or impact theme
Process of review
We use the following process for our grant consult sessions and have found this to be the most valuable and time effective for researchers.
- Booking calendar link sent to participants.
- Draft plan to be sent to us in Word document format for review
- We review and track changes on the document (1 hour estimate)
- We set up an online consult, via Zoom, to discuss the review findings with the participant and suggest changes (1 hour)
- Zoom meeting recording and track changed documents sent to client
Each consult includes:
- Expert advice and guidance from our impact consultants.
- Online calendar booking to lock in online consultation time.
- Consultation reminders.
- Zoom recording and a session report following the consult.
Basic NHMRC Investigator Grant Consult
Facilitation
We facilitate a range of activities so that you can focus on the outcomes rather than the inputs.
- Roundtable discussions
- Stakeholder meetings and discussions
- Strategy sessions
- Guided planning processes
Impact planning
Make it easier
Development and implementation of guidelines and tools
- Develop a plain language writing guide for researchers.
- Create tools, paper-based and electronic formats, for researchers to use in the production of summaries.
- Training workshop for your organisation in the use of these tools and guidelines.
- Develop a process for sustained use of tools and guidelines.
Organisational impact audit
Build your organisational capacity for research impact
We provide training and strategy sessions to identify the best way to prepare your organisation for impact assessment.
- Do your staff have the key skills and the necessary resources to ensure the best impact pathways are being developed and followed.
- Are you an impact literate organisation?
- Would you like to understand how others are operating in the engagement and impact space to see if there are strategies you can learn from?
Celebrate your achievements and explore opportunities for more
Let us review and identify translation/implementation activity already achieved and further work required
- Work with organisation staff and research partners to review previous and current project translation plans/opportunities to determine what has been achieved so far.
- Review outcomes from any evaluations and assessments of research implementation and impact activities.
- Assist in the identification of key decision-maker audiences and the ideal message champions.
- Identify opportunities and activities to advance translation and implementation of research knowledge into practice.
- Provide information, advice and strategies to create sticky messages for targeted audiences and assist in the implementation strategies for those findings.
Plain language summaries and reports
We can develop high-quality plain language summaries for existing research projects
- We recommend and use a specific format that has been researched and developed by Research Impact-Réseau Impact Recherche (RIR), a Canadian network of 11 universities.
- Two-page maximum, high-quality summary, that covers what the research was about, how the research was undertaken, what the research found, how you can use the research, and a highlight section outlining what the reader needs to know.
- The format is based on advice and recommendations from research users and policymakers and has proven an effective tool for communicating research to a broad audience.
- This format allows for consistency in your branding and messaging, and provides a simple, yet effective, process for researchers to follow in the future.
We will support your editorial and content support
- Work with staff, researchers, and partners, to collate and write content for proposals, publications, websites and so on.
- Ensure clarity of key messages across all content creation.
RIA Research Consulting Flow Chart
