Creating impact from your research means contributing to changes in the world beyond academia. For example, your research might indicate the case for a new intervention that could help improve healthcare services in some way, or you may be working on an evidence base that shows that certain behavioural changes will reduce disease risks or improve population health.
Effective communications are a critical tool for engaging with stakeholders, generating impact from your research and building your reputation for expertise in your field.
Here is a Step by Step quick guide to communicating your research.
1. Who do you need to connect with?
2. What is your message?
3. Finding the best communication channels
4. If you just do one thing…
5. Communications resources
You might want to refer this Communications strategy template, put together to help you develop and share your comms strategy with colleagues and to prompt you to consider some of the most important factors and actions that will help you to communicate effectively.
This guide ‘Generating Impact from your Work‘, by Oliver Francis, for the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, is a useful and practical introduction to research communications and impact, explaining why impact matters so much and how you can plan in communications processes to enable impact as you carry out your research.
Last updated August 2019. Developed by Lucy Lloyd, PCU Communications Manager