NOTES: Utility or Impact? (2.5)

  • Who is the audience for my research?
  • Which academic communities would be interested in what I am doing?
  • Can I meet the standards for evidence and debate in that community?
(Inter) discipline boundaries
very specific standards around theory and methodology

  • What are the audiences outside the university?
  • How can I reach these audiences?
  • What kind of language will I need to speak?
  • What will they find useful in what I do?
identify who these stakeholders are, 
what their relationship is to the problem you are investigating, and what aspect of the findings you intend to generate might be of interest to them.

Language 
Interests
Goals

Your PhD work must primarily serve the criteria laid down by your university, and secondarily those that external stakeholders put in place.

Research Councils UK (RCUK) make a distinction between ‘impact’ and ‘pathways to impact’. 
 
substantive social and economic outcomes of research,
 
the organizational means by which impact will be pursued.

Think about impact in terms of both the value of the research, and the strategic means by which this will be promoted outside of the university.

Securing good relationships with as many stakeholders as possible is the best strategy to generate a pathway to impact.
  • How can I assist in improving practice?
  • What kinds of change would I like to see brought about?
  • Who would benefit from these changes (and who might lose out)?
  • How would I benefit from those changes?
Right at the start of conducting research, ask:
  • what sort of change would you like to come about, if your research were successful? 
  • who might benefit from your research, if implemented, 
  • who might be negatively affected
  • your own personal ‘pay-off’ 

One major point explored by examiners of a PhD is whether there is material in the research thesis of ‘publishable’ nature and that contributes significantly to the field.

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