Abstract

Often squeezed between impact-neglecting researchers and hysteric quantitative idolaters, impact research managers are struggling for proper recognition across the European university landscape. This presentation looks into the recent evolution of their role, by searching for both the opportunities and the contraddictions this position posits to higher education institutions. While it’s consolidated in certain countries, the usefulness of the research impact manager is still questioned in many others, given the difficulties in framing her/his exact role into a well-established organisational structure and the concerns relating to the framework of skills and competences necessary to perform core tasks. Among the innovative topics the presentation intends exploring are both behavioural and procedural lock-ins in the creation of appropriate impact strategies for collaborative research projects, through practical cases collected across the University of Bologna. By building on personal experiences and feedbacks collected during the support provided to research teams in their applications to Horizon Europe’s calls, the author aims at sharing lessons learned with a view of mapping both good practices and challenges to the improvement of present and next generation research impact managers.