Section 10: Where can you go for support to help you make an impact?

Where can you go for support to help you make an impact?

What’s clear from both our researcher survey and interviews is that creating societal impact with your research takes time and effort. And it’s clear that researchers don’t always feel they have the time or support to do this.

However, our interviews gave the clear sense that while there’s much still needed to support researchers in these efforts, there is a shift occurring. More importance is being placed on societal impact and alongside that there is increasing support – both at the institutional level and also on a smaller scale between PhD students and supervisors, for example.

Indeed, this relationship between students and supervisors, as well as support from colleagues, appears to have been vital to the success of many of the researchers we spoke to. Which is backed up by survey findings.

In addition to the interviews and survey, we carried out some additional research into support mechanisms provided by universities in the Netherlands. Our researcher searched universities’ websites, looking for pages on impact, as well as units that could lead to more information on impact support (such as Knowledge Transfer Offices libraries and research support offices). The findings of this work have now been published as an interactive webpage. And this blog post gives an analysis of what we found.

Research insights

A quarter of respondents said they receive no support for increasing societal impact

Nearly a quarter of respondents said that they received no support for
increasing the societal impact of their research:

Of those that did receive support, most answered that it came from part of their institution (43%) or from colleagues (42%)

18% said they got support from publishers, and 14% said they were supported by professional agencies, consultancies or services

Respondents from Europe reported the lowest levels of support (28% vs a mean of 23%). This was notably higher for respondents from the Netherlands, where only 19% reported no support.

Most support comes from research offices and communications departments.

The most commonly cited types of support were financial or professional communications activity

Interview insights from academics based in the Netherlands

We carried out a series of interviews with researchers from a variety of disciplines who have made a societal impact with their research.The challenges faced by early career researchers in terms of balancing academic demands with impact work were acknowledged by most of the researchers we spoke to…

Unfortunately, at the moment, PhD students and supervisors work within the framework set by the university which is designed with the singular purpose of finishing the PhD. That's what matters. In the Netherlands, the funding for PhDs only gets released to the university after they’re completed. And nothing about finishing the PhD requires societal impact – it's all about the academic product that you're delivering. So I think that impact can often be forgotten.

Floris Peters, postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University and winner of the 2018 FASOS Valorisation Prize

Read the interview.

I would say that most scientists already have that motivation that they want to make a difference – in whatever way is right for their discipline. But it's more that they're then stuck in a system which has so many requirements – for example, to have those impact factor publications, to keep a consistent publishing record, and so on. When you have requirements heaped on you, you have limited time to dedicate to considering how you’re going to have an impact outside academia.

Professor Philipp Pattberg, director of the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute (ASI)

Read the interview.

Some of those earlier in their careers mentioned how important the support of supervisors could be in achieving impact..

If my supervisors had been unsure about whether this was a good idea, if they’d seen this ‘impact’ side of my work as not the business of a PhD, I might have backed off. It felt as though it could easily get out of hand. The fact that my supervisors were just as interested in getting this done really mattered. I had their full support and cooperation throughout.

Floris Peters, postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University and winner of the 2018 FASOS Valorisation Prize

Read the interview.

While others spoke about the importance of finding ways to better recognise societal impact work as part of a researcher’s evaluation...

I enjoy the work so much. But not getting the recognition for the time I put into it leaves me stuck in a dilemma – I can only do this work, which I view as an important part of my responsibility as an academic, in my scarce spare time and at the expense of publishing more research, which is what I’m evaluated on. That’s definitely a source of frustration.

Dr Marieke de Hoon, assistant professor of international law, international criminal justice and human rights at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Read the interview.

Early career researchers need to be encouraged. They need real-life examples of how to do it. They need time and support from their supervisors. And, of course, they also need acknowledgement and reward for the work.

Jutka Halberstadt, assistant professor at the Department of Health Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Read the interview.

For our fellowship, we’ve been discussing the idea that if you don't have enough publication points, you could perhaps compensate by showing your societal impact. The idea was that you would have to tick boxes if you think that you’re outstanding on specific criteria, such as being featured in the media or speaking at conferences. And then you’d have to provide evidence of that.

Professor Frank Cörvers, scientific director at the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE)

Read the interview.

Many of the more senior researchers we spoke to described the ways in which they’re trying to support their own students and fellow researchers…

One of the key things I’ve done is set up a talent lab for my PhD students. It involves regular meetings that the PhD students themselves can fill with whatever topics they want to learn more about. So, for example, we invited a school director with expertise in educating kids with special needs to come and talk to the group. That allowed all the students to pose questions about how to handle different scenarios when working with those children. Another completely different example is that we did a ‘drawing for business’ workshop where the students learnt how to draw or make sketches of their research to communicate it in a different way.

Professor Mai Chin A Paw, university research chair professor at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam

Read the interview.

Nobody gave me all the training to do the job I’m doing today, and I'm trying to change that at the institute by giving researchers more of these experiences. I'm trying to put them in a position of leadership, but then, to give them a discussion, to work with them, to mentor them, to help them understand, ‘What does it take to be successful in that job?’ And then share that knowledge that I've accrued haphazardly so that they can do it better from the start.

Michel Dumontier, distinguished professor of data science at Maastricht University

Read the interview.

[Our Demonstrator Lab] takes researchers with very early phase ideas. We offer them development space, coaching, and support to grow their idea. And we do our best to help them reach the point where they can get external investment. For scientific projects, we also have a seed fund so they can develop their first prototype. Then, importantly, we help connect them with the right people. For example, we organise events where we invite lots of people from our network to see what the researchers are doing and what’s being developed.

Professor Davide Iannuzzi, university research chair professor in experimental physics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Read the interview.

It's up to us, the older generation, to protect early career researchers. At the moment, it seems we expect each one of them to do everything and then what we’re seeing is that some of them – at a relatively young age – are experiencing burn out. When I compare the situation when I was an associate professor in the 1990s and the beginning of this century, compared to what is being expected from young academics now, it's hard to compare. It's much tougher.

Professor Hans Nelen, key domain chair in criminal law and criminology at the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University

Read the interview.