Sussex Impact Days
The Sussex Impact Days are an annual event of activities designed to help you have greater impact in your work. A series of workshops and talks are aimed at sharing experiences and knowledge of how to create impact.
This year's Sussex Impact Days will take place over two days, Tuesday 18 June and Wendesday 19 June, in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA).
There will be three themes running through each day which aim to showcase the impact of Sussex research and answer questions related to building impact. On Tuesday 18 June, sessions are grouped around ‘Introduction to impact’, ‘Let’s talk about impact’, and ‘Impact success at Sussex’, where attendees will have introductions or refreshers to impact and its place in UK higher education, a chance to meet impact support colleagues from across Sussex to help explain and identify potential research impact, and learn more about the different ways that impact can be successful. On Wednesday 19 June, sessions are grouped around ‘Avenues to impact’, ‘Impact tools and how to use them’, and ‘Impact and the REF’, where attendees will learn more about different avenues to impact and how to research and start new relationships with external audiences, what tools are available to help keep track of impact, and what impact looks like in the next REF.
All Sussex staff and students who are involved in leading, conducting or supporting research at any level and in any discipline are welcome to attend.
Please view the full programme for the two days below and follow the links to register for sessions.
This event is part of the Summer of Research 2024, a festival celebrating fantastic research from the University of Sussex and its positive impact. Sign up for other exciting events here!
Tuesday 18 June programme
- 09.15-11.00: Welcome and Keynote with Jonathan Piotrowski: Impact in UK Research Assessment
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09.15-10.00: Café
There will be coffee and morning refreshments available alongside stalls featuring various teams from across Sussex who support research impact (Research Information, Quality and Impact (RIQI), Research Development, Research Initiatives, Innovation and Business Partnerships (IBP)). Do join us for a morning coffee and to meet and learn about some of the teams who can help you with your research impact.
10.00-11.00: Auditorium
Keynote from Jonathan Piotrowski (Director of REF Policy at Research England): Impact in UK Research Assessment. Including introduction from Professor Sasha Roseneil (VC) and a Q&A chaired by Professor Keith Jones (PVC Research).
- 11.00-12.00: What is impact, why does it matter, and how to incorporate it into your funding bids
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Auditorium
In this session, the Research Quality and Impact (RQI) and Research Development teams will introduce research impact, why it matters in UK Higher Education, and some of the ways you can incorporate it into your funding bids. This session will act as an introduction (or refresher) to research impact, how it might be relevant for you and your research, and what funders are looking for with reference to impact.
- 12.00-14.00: Let’s talk about impact: meet your impact support teams from across Sussex
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Café
In this interactive session you will get a chance to meet teams from across Sussex who support impact. Representatives from RIQI, Research Development, Research Initiatives, IBP and Policy@Sussex will be on hand to answer questions and highlight the impact support available at Sussex. Through interactive activities, this session will help you:
- Explain your research and identify its potential impact
- Identify what support you need to help develop your impact
- Consider how you can transition from aspiring to make impact to actually making it
Lunch will be included in this session where you will have additional opportunities to network with representatives from the above mentioned teams and colleagues from across Sussex.
- 14.00-15.00: Does research still matter in public policy? An (honest) external perspective
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Gardner Tower
This session will be facilitated by Policy@Sussex and will feature an external speaker (details to be confirmed shortly) who will provide their perspective on how research fits into public policy.
- 15.00-16.00: What does impact success look like? A roundtable discussion
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Gardner Tower
This roundtable will explore impact from multiple perspectives, asking what impact success looks like in different contexts. Facilitated by Tom Wolfenden (Senior Knowledge Exchange Initiatives Manager), we will first hear from contributors who hold a variety of roles in producing and supporting research impact.
Charlotte Humma (Centre and Communications Manager for the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy) and Dr Sarah King (School of Psychology) will be joined by Research / Impact Leads Professor Gianluca Memoli (School of Engineering and Informatics) and Professor Mark Walters (School of Law, Politics and Sociology) as well as the Director for Research and Knowledge Exchange for the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Professor Andrea Banfi.
After sharing their own impact experience and what success looks like to them, the floor will be opened to give everyone a chance to discuss some of the following questions:
- What does impact success mean to you?
- How have you achieved/supported impact success or how do you plan to achieve/support impact success?
- What are examples of good practice or processes that work well to identify impact success across Sussex?
- How can we best recognise impact success here at Sussex?
- 16.10-17.00: Research Culture and Research Impact Awards Showcase
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Gardner Tower
This session will showcase the research of those shortlisted for the Research Culture and Research Impact Awards. Come join us to hear more about the exciting work that is leading to impact across Sussex.
- 17.00-19.00: 2024 Research Culture and Research Impact Awards Ceremony
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Auditorum
The Research Impact Awards and Research Culture Awards winners will be announced at this evening ceremony.
Although this is an invitation only event, it will be open to all to watch online. The online attendance registration link will be available shortly.
Wednesday 19 June programme
- 08.30-10.00: Welcome and Keynote with Phil Ward: Regionality and impact: the case for consortia
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08.30-9.00: Café
Join us for morning refreshments to start day two of the Sussex Impact Days.
9.00-10.00: Auditorium
In this keynote presentation, we will hear from Phil Ward, Director of Eastern Arc, who will speak about the value and opportunities of impact and engagement that comes from consortium working. The University of Sussex has recently joined the universities of East Anglia, Essex and Kent to become the fourth member of the Eastern Arc research consortium. We will hear about how consortium working can allow a focus on regionality and place, to bring people together and encourage engagement on a broader scale.
- 10.00-11.00: When ‘I’ becomes ‘we’: Building long term relationships with organisations to create impact
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Gardner Tower
Working with organisations who need your research has long been cited as a prerequisite of developing impact, but what happens to those relationships as the work grows and develops over time? What implications does this have on researchers in terms of their work and ways of working and what have they discovered along the way?
Join a panel (speakers TBC) to reflect on their own personal lived experience of stepping outside the University to work with external organisations to bring about change, facilitated by TBC.
- 11.00-12.30: Collaborate with Impact: engaging with external partners
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Gardner Tower
An opportunity to hear first hand from external partners and academics about the impact of collaborative working from across the disciplines. Pose your own questions to our panel of businesses about how and why they engage with University expertise. Discover the wide impacts that have resulted through one of the Universities Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, hear about the many different mechanisms that business use to engage with academic expertise.
- 12.30-14.00: Impact tools and how to use them: an interactive session over lunch
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Gardner Tower
In this interactive lunch time session, Dr Hayley Cordingley (Research Intelligence Adviser) and Maggie Symes (Research and Open Scholarship Librarian) will introduce Altmetric Explorer and Elements as tools that can help you in tracking and storing your impact. After short introductions to these tools there will be plenty of time for discussion and practical demonstrations on how to use these tools.
- 14.00-15.00: Researchers writing popular books
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Gardner Tower
This panel will consider how books can be a route to impact through reaching a popular audience. We will hear from Professor Dave Goulson (Life Sciences), Professor Fiona Mathews (Life Sciences), and Professor Hester Barron (MAH), all of whom have written research-based popular books, who will speak about their experiences in this area and consider the challenges and opportunities in writing both research monographs and ‘trade’ books for a popular readership, and how academic authors can navigate between high-quality research publication and accessibility.
- 15.00-16.00: Arts & humanities impact in practice: AHRC IAA project showcase
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Gardner Tower
This panel discussion session brings together AHRC IAA project leads from several Schools, to talk about their experiences of delivering impactful engagement activities. The 4-year, £600,000 AHRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) programme enables arts and humanities researchers across the University to bring about societal, economic, environmental and other impacts beyond academia. The session will be particularly relevant to those working in the arts and humanities subjects, and of broader interest to anyone considering how they might connect with organisations, communities or individuals, to achieve beneficial change through their research.
Chair: Dr Piotr Cieplak (MAH)
Panel: Katy Mack (MAH), Dr Emily Robinson (LPS), Dr Sarah Scuzzarello (Global) & Piotr Cieplak (MAH).
- 16.00-16.30: REF2029: What we know so far
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Gardner Tower
In this session, the RQI team will present an overview of everything we know so far about REF2029 followed by a short Q&A session.
- 16.30-17.30: REF and the impact landscape: a roundtable discussion
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Gardner Tower
This final session of the 2024 Sussex Impact Days will consider REF and the broader impact landscape in UK Higher Education. This discussion will be facilitated by Professor Seb Oliver (DPVC Research) and we will first hear some reflections from a variety of colleagues at Sussex who produce and support impactful research, including Dr Barny Greenland (Life Sciences), Professor Ben Highmore (MAH), Professor Kristine Langhoff (ESW), and Richard Poole (Assistant Research Impact Manager, Business School), before opening the floor to give everyone a chance to discuss some of the following questions:
- What does impact look like in REF2029? Are the recent developments positive?
- Are case studies the best way of measuring impact?
- What is the influence of the REF on the impact landscape in UK HE?
- What are the positive and negative aspects of this influence?
- What are the challenges and opportunities for impact in the lead up to REF2029 and beyond?
- Previous Sussex Impact Days
- Sussex Impact Days 2023
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For the first time the event took place over three days, 11-13 July 2023, in the Bramber House Conference Centre, new Student Centre and in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA).
- The first day included a panel session on Impact through public engagement, media and social media which gave a thought-provoking insight into the reality of what it is like to be a researcher bringing impact into projects through these channels. There was also a session covering the Research Metrics tools used at Sussex to track indicators of impact and a workshop on What is impact, why does it matter and how to track it. The day concluded with an interactive session from the Innovation and Business Partnerships team about knowledge exchange.
- Day two started with an overview of impact support at Sussex followed by a Building relationships with policymakers workshop from Policy@Sussex. There were also panel sessions on Crossover Books and Impact building relationships with stakeholders. The afternoon also saw the winners of the Research Impact Awards announced at a celebratory reception. Find out who won the Impact Awards.
- The final day started with an Overview of communications support for impact at Sussex and the latest insights into the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Colleagues from the Media team shared top tips on using social media to communicate research as well as how they can help throughout the impact building journey. This was followed by a repeat of the research metrics workshop and a session on Elements and how the academic profile can help with the impact journey.
- Research with Impact Day 2022
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Research with Impact Day took place on 7 June 2022 in the Bramber House Conference Centre.
- The Research with Impact Day 2022 began with a Research Staff Showcase, which featured marketplace-type ‘stalls’ at which researchers presented their research and activities where attendees had to opportunity to find out more about Sussex’s leading and innovative work and network with colleagues, and Professional Services Drop-ins where attendees met and found out about how various Professional Services teams support various aspects of research.
- These were followed by an ‘Impact Question Time’ where attendees heard from four Sussex researchers who spoke about the various approaches, opportunities, challenges and successes they had experienced on their pathways to impact.
- There were parallel training sessions in the afternoon, including: Integrating impact into your funding applications; Achieving impact through knowledge exchange and commercialisation; Pursuing policy impact; and Increasing the visibility of your research.
- The day ended with a reception and awards ceremony to celebrate and reward the outstanding impact and research achievements of Sussex researchers, the Sussex Impact Awards. Find out who won the Impact Awards.
- Sussex Impact Day 2018
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Sussex Impact Day took place on 19 June 2018 in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA).
- There were four session themes running in parallel across the Sussex Impact Day 2018. These themes were: Working with external partners, Methods and tools, Research Excellence Framework (REF), and Making your research visible.
- In the Breakfast with impact: Spark your curiosity session, a welcome and introduction was followed by three talks and then networking and demonstrations. Among the networking and demonstrations was 3d audio with audio metamaterials, Dr Gianluca Memoli.
- After the plenary session, What does impact mean for Sussex?, the day consisted of a range of workshops and presentations.
- Across the four themes, colleagues heard about various topics including Pathways to impact in practice: What could go wrong?, from speakers who were internal and external research colleagues. Other topics included, How to develop your own Theory of Change for your research project, REF 2021: All the latest developments, and Commercialising social science research: How can you do it?
- The day ended with a reception and awards ceremony to celebrate and reward the outstanding impact and research achievements of Sussex researchers, the Sussex Impact Awards. Find out who won the Impact Awards.
- Sussex Impact Day 2017
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Sussex Impact Day took place on 13 June 2017 in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA).
- There were four strands of sessions running in parallel across the Sussex Impact Day in 2017. These strands were: Impact in the REF, Techniques for impact, Building relationships for impact, and Impact for early career researchers.
- In the Opening Panel plenary session, Interactions with academics: the research user perspective, guests included experts from industry, the third and cultural sectors and policy who gave practical insights from the perspective of research users. Workshops and bookable surgery sessions also ran throughout the day.
- Across the four strands, colleagues heard about various topics including Creating narratives for impact case studies, from speakers Sam Knowles (Managing director & Founder, Insight Agents) and Saskia Gent (Insights for Impact). Other topics included, Submitting evidence to Select Committees, Working with museums and cultural organisations, and Creating impact early in your academic career.
- The day ended with a reception and awards ceremony to celebrate and reward the outstanding impact and research achievements of Sussex researchers, the Sussex Impact and Research Awards. Find out who won the Impact Awards.
- Sussex Impact Day 2016
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Sussex Impact Day took place on 14 June 2016 in the Jubilee building.
- There were four strands of sessions running in parallel across the Sussex Impact Day in 2016. These strands were: Impact in the REF, Techniques for Impact, Domains of Impact, and Impact for doctoral and early career researchers.
- In the opening panel, With or without the REF: Why an impact focus is vital for researchers, speakers emphasised that impact should not be seen as a top-down exercise driven by government but as fundamental to undertaking meaningful and engaging work.
- Across the four strands, attendees heard about various topics including: The importance of evidence for impact case studies; How to work with non-academic partners; Engaging with museum and heritage sector audiences; how to achieve impact in UK policy. There were also practical sessions on networking skills and writing for a lay audience.
- A plenary session consisted of four researchers who spoke about the impact of their work with examples of how it came about, the motivation for doing it, and tips for researchers who would like to make their research achieve greater impact.
- The day ended with a reception and awards ceremony to celebrate and reward the outstanding impact and research achievements of Sussex researchers, the Sussex Impact and Research Awards. Find out who won the Impact Awards.
- Sussex Impact Day 2015
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Sussex Impact Day took place on 16 June 2015 in the Jubilee building.
- In the opening address, Dr Steven Hill spoke about the opportunities and challenges in creating research impact.
- There were several workshops on the various tools researchers can use to help them with their impact, including how to best use their Sussex web profile, how to optimise events for impact, working with mainstream media for impact, and how to network on online platforms.
- Across various sessions, attendees heard about various topics including what made an effect Pathway to Impact section in a UKRI grant application, from speakers from the ESRC and BBSRC. Other sessions included How to tell if your research has commercial impact, Life narrative and forms of impact, Influencing government: how to work with select committees, and lessons learnt from REF2014 impact case studies.
- The day ended with a reception and awards ceremony to celebrate and reward the outstanding impact and research achievements of Sussex researchers, the Sussex Impact and Research Awards. Find out who won the Impact Awards.