Making research impact visible and usable

What you get

• Impact pathways that hold up

  From research questions to users, uptake and change: a clear pathway helps with funding proposals, research evaluations under the SEP and impact plans for NWO or Horizon Europe.

• Long-term impact stories

  For The Green Village at TU Delft we brought 12.5 years of impact together in a story, a dashboard and a film.

Why we do what we do

Read the film as text

1. We all want to know
2. our place in the world.
3. Thin grey lines join dots into a web.
4. We like to believe that what we do is part of something larger.
5. It is.
6. Together we make our surroundings, our brands, our communities.
7. We shape the work of others, as they shape ours.
8. The web grows dense.
9. We live in one web of cause and consequence.
10. Each path tells a story, part of a larger narrative.
11. A system of meaning.
12. So what is our impact?
13. Whose lives do we touch?
14. What changed? For whom? How much? And what part was ours?
15. Intended or not, for better or worse.
16. Knowing that changes what you do next.
17. A dark line draws a path through the web. Impact management helps you see it, steer it, and use it.
18. A large word: Lead. A purple path runs through the web. Lead with purpose, and fund your mission.
19. A large word: Improve. A green path runs through the web. Learn what doesn’t work and design for better.
20. A large word: Engage. A blue-green path runs through the web. Share your story, and bring others into it.
21. A large word: Account. A blue path runs through the web. State your claim, and prove it.
22. A large word: Discover. A yellow path runs through the web. Find your next impact before it happens.
23. “How do you measure impact?”
24. It sounds hard.
25. It isn’t.
26. It’s not about the how.
27. It’s about
28. Portraits of people fill the screen.
29. A large word: Who.
30. About rights-holders, whose lives are touched.
31. And stakeholders, whose choices shape them.
32. The people stand side by side, at the same height. A wave of colour runs through the web. Every voice, every perspective, equally weighed.
33. The web turns many colours. Pluriform and equivalent.
34. Who determines what.
35. And what determines how.
36. That’s it. No more, no less.
37. We count what can be counted, and listen to the rest.
38. Coloured paths wind across the web. We find the stories that connect the dots, and make sense of the whole.
39. We love our craft:
40. to ask the questions,
41. to measure what matters,
42. and narrate what works.
43. One dark path remains. Let’s reveal your path.
44. The word narrate, with the line: impact in numbers and stories.

What we often hear

• “Our research doesn’t find its way into practice.”

  We help you involve practitioners early, so you ask the questions they need answered and share findings in formats they can use.

• “The societal impact of our research is hard to show, beyond citations.”

  We help you track uptake and influence: who uses your findings and what changes as a result. That gives you evidence beyond citations for your SEP self-evaluation and impact narratives.

• “Every funder wants an impact plan with the proposal, and I write it from scratch each time.”

  Together we write a credible impact pathway with realistic outcomes and indicators, tailored to what the funder asks for, such as an NWO impact plan or the impact section of a Horizon Europe proposal.

• “Years of work in our living lab, and still no overall picture.”

  We bring together data, cases and stakeholder voices into one impact story, with a dashboard or film if that helps you share it.

What you may be wondering

• Does this fit how research works?

  Yes. We work with impact pathways and contribution, not with promises about outcomes you can’t control.

• What happens to our research data?

  We follow your data and ethics rules. What we don’t need, we don’t ask for.

• Have you done this for a research institution before?

  Yes. For The Green Village at TU Delft we brought twelve and a half years of data together in a dashboard, an analysis and a film.

To read

• A theory of change in an afternoon

  A funder, investor or proposal asks for a theory of change. Here is how we make a first version in one afternoon, with your own team.