BU Research Blog

The RCUK Digital Economy Theme (DET) is running a competition designed to help capture and promote the impact that your digital economy research is having. Three prizes of £10,000 are available to support researchers to further tell the story of your research impact in an interesting and engaging way to a wider audience. Closing date is 10th October. 

Research Councils UK defines impact as ‘the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy’. Impact embraces all the diverse ways that research-related skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations. These include (but are not limited to):

• Fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom
• Increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy
• Enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.

A key aspect of this definition is that impact must be demonstrable. It is not enough just to focus on activities and outputs that promote impact, such as staging a conference or publishing a report. Evidence of the research impact is required, for example, that it has been taken up and used by policy makers or has led to improvements in services or business.

Following on from the DE Impact Review conducted earlier this year, Digital Futures 2012 provides a great opportunity for digital economy researchers to not only demonstrate the academic impact of their research but also show the wider impact.

For full information, please visit the website.

If you would like to explore public engagement and impact around your research, please contact Becca on 01202 9(61206)