Engagement and Impact
Encouraging greater collaboration between universities, industries and other end-users of research
History of EI
Demonstrating the impact of research is becoming standard university business in many countries. In December 2015, as part of its National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), the Australian government announced a national engagement and impact (EI) assessment to examine how universities are translating their research into economic, social and other benefits. The aim is to increase collaboration between universities, industry and other end-users of research.
A pilot EI assessment was run by the ARC in 2017, and the first full national EI assessment (EI 2018) will run alongside Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) in 2018.
What is EI?
There are two independently assessable components of EI 2018:
- Engagement: Research engagement activity is assessed based on an engagement narrative, a small suite of quantitative indicators, and an indicator explanatory statement.
- Impact: Research impact (and the approach to impact) are assessed by qualitative impact case studies
The increased focus on EI data has facilitated its use in a variety of applications additional to government-led assessments, including grant applications and assessment of professional profiles.
Furthermore, the delivery of impactful, solution-driven research is in accordance with Charles Sturt University's 2017-2022 Strategy.
Information you should collect
The types of information that may be useful to collect in support of such activities include (but are not limited to):
- media coverage
- social media activity
- public lectures, presentations, workshops, seminars, open days, school visits
- consultations with community groups, professional/practice organisations, government bodies
- serving on external advisory boards
- editorial activity
- expert witness in court cases
- publication peer review and editorial work
- thesis examinations
- prizes, awards or other distinctions
Storing EI data
The Charles Sturt University Research Output (CRO) portal offers a storage and public display solution for EI data.
If you have a Charles Sturt University login, you already have access to create, edit and showcase EI information in CRO.
With CRO, you can also link your activities, impacts, and media to your outputs so that networks and associations can be re-called over time. Researchers have control over public and private content in a repository that ranks highly in web searches.