Blog post – ‘Designing Research for Impact: Part 1: Introduction and Identifying Beneficiaries’

The following blog post has been written by guest blogger, Hannah Clark, Impact Facilitator, University of Manchester, who delivered a session at our Early Career Researchers Conference earlier this year. 

When I first began my career at the University of Manchester, research impact was still a fairly new concept, but fast-forward to 2025 and it has become an increasingly important and talked about aspect of how institutions and researchers define their contribution to their field of study and their wider communities. It has also become a requisite element of the funding landscape. Funders want to be sure that their investments are yielding research that is of use beyond academia and that the changes brought about will positively shape the lives of others. This is referred to as ‘Real World Impact’. 

There are many slight variations in the way universities and funders define research impact, but they all converge around the demonstrable and beneficial changes that come about in people’s behaviours, beliefs, and/or practices as a result of academic research.  

Beyond that broad, general definition impact is a splendidly fluid thing! Approaches to research impact can vary greatly even within the most niche disciplines and there are so many pathways to research impact that is attainable no matter the breadth or budget of a project!

In this mini-series I will be looking at four key elements to designing your research projects to achieve meaningful impact: 

1. Identifying the beneficiaries of your research project 
2. Identifying how stakeholders might use your research 
3. Identifying pathways to stakeholder engagement
4. Preparing to evidence and track your research impact 

The aim of these four blogs will be to cover some of the fundamentals of research impact, but it is worth remembering that each project is as individual as the researcher conducting it and producing good quality impact is never a one-size fits all process. 

1. Identifying the beneficiaries of your research project 

When you begin to plan a project, a couple of really significant early questions to ask yourself are:  

• Who stands to benefit from this research?  

• What unmet needs do these individuals or groups have that this research can help address? 

• Are there multiple individuals or groups/communities and if so, how do they/can they interact with each other? 

At this early stage in project planning stakeholder analysis can feel a little daunting, but it will set your intentions and even if they change and develop along the way, it will give you an excellent foundation to build upon.  

There are lots of different resources out there to help you conduct a high quality stakeholder analysis but I tend to recommend this blog written by Professor Mark Reed. 

During this phase of planning try to avoid the tempting shortcut of just identifying ‘the general public’. If research has broad implications this can feel logical, but it does not give funders a clear idea of your aims and can stagnate your planning process. Likewise if a research project is not aimed at a specialist audience, or if the specialist audience feels quite niche, researchers sometimes feel that they should pad their target group out a bit by adding ‘…and the general public.’ However this can be confusing for reviewers and undermine the thoroughness of your proposal. There is almost always a way to stratify and it is worth doing so! 

If you have difficulty identifying beneficiaries or stakeholders there are a few things that can help get you started:  

• Mind-mapping exercises  

• Seeking advice from colleagues or friends 

• Internet searches and social media – either posting a question or simply searching topics that link to your research interests  

• Conducting focus groups 

• Even advertising 

The process of defining beneficiaries also gives you an opportunity to think about the finer details of your own networks and provide details of particular connections that you already have. If you do not yet have the connections your research will require it is important to show funders that you have thought about this and have identified organisations/communities/individuals who will be essential to the project and that you have considered how you might connect with them. This awareness can strengthen the likelihood of success for your project proposal. 

Once you have established who you will help and how you want your research to positively impact them, you can begin to plan how you will: 

• Reach them to communicate your intentions and your findings 

• Engage them to foster two-way communication and knowledge exchange  

• Clarify the changes you envision occurring – the exact change may develop as the project progresses but identifying your broad hopes at an early stage can help you draft a more compelling case for funders and shape your own thoughts,  

• Consider what the scale of that change might be.  

And we will look at some of these over the next few weeks!