Abstract

Ensuring that publicly funded research projects lead to tangible impacts is one requirement that funders have always regarded among the criteria for evaluation and assessment of projects. In Horizon2020 Impact became quite central with concerted efforts from the EC to increase the relevance of research to society and the economy. This trend was intensified in Horizon Europe, with the introduction of Impact Pathways and more attention focused on how to meaningfully achieve the Expected Outcomes of the call topic and Impacts from the framework programme as a whole.
While the requirements to describe the potential impact in a proposal and to maximise impact during and after project implementation has been around for a long time, researchers often find addressing this part the most challenging. As a result, they pass on the relevant section to research managers and/or external consultants who have often been able to help based on experience and standardised approaches. However, with projects becoming more complex and with the requirements for impacts increasing (identifying results, target users and pathways for the results to be passed on by users leading to quantified outcomes and impacts) the role of research managers in developing impact statements is becoming more challenging.
In this presentation we will outline the main principles of our methodology, which research managers and/or external consultants can apply together with key members of the consortium to develop credible impact pathways. In addition, concrete examples will be provided, enriched with experiences from impact related activities within projects showing the pathway followed for the results to be taken up and to create concrete impacts.