News

Imagination launches a new project to support excellent, high impact research across Lancaster University

Ideas for Impact is a Lancaster University project to support academics across the University in conducting excellent research with significance to the outside world. We are especially interested in helping newly appointed academics to develop high impact research

The Lancaster University pilot project, Ideas for Impact is now bringing together new academics from across the university to discuss, support and facilitate excellent, collaborative and high impact research.

The group will be shaped by newly appointed academics themselves, who will decide where they meet each time, what the discussion will focus on, which research tools and methods might be showcased or tested and which experts are invited to contribute to the discussion. This could include experts from across the county in addition to drawing on expertise within the university.

The group will meet twice a term with an emphasis on fun, informal events that share the best of our collective experience and activity.

The first of these meetings will be held at the beginning of the Summer term (beginning the 24 March 2014) and it will be held in ImaginationLancaster in the LICA building, number 4 on the campus map.

The expert to lead the discussion will be confirmed shortly.

The purpose of the group is provide an opportunity to:

  1. Talk about how your research is significant to the outside world and what methods you are applying to make it so.
  2. Explore how your research can have greater reach.
  3. Build useful relationships between academics and researchers across the University.
  4. Share methods and tools for excellent collaborative research and learn how to use and adapt new ones.
  5. Learn more about what is required for preparation for REF 2020, the Research Excellence Framework, a new system for assessing the quality of research in universities, for which is it is predicted as many of 25% of the university’s academics[1] will be required to submit an impact case study.

If you are a recently appointed academic and you would like to be part of the group, please email us at ideasforimpact@lancaster.ac.uk to introduce yourself and we’ll be in touch.

[1] Encouraging a British Invention Revolution: Sir Andrew Witty’s Review of Universities and Growth