SNIFFER Golden Rules for Research Impact

31 Aug, 2010

In October 2009, the Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER) in partnership with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) commissioned Dr Laura Meagher to review the impact and benefits of projects commissioned by the SEPA Internal research Programme and/or the SNIFFER coordinated Environmental Regulation Programme (ERP). 32 projects, 16 from each programme were evaluated.

The overall aim of the review was to understand how impacts and benefits are generated (or not) within research, to aid future programmes and project design. To complement survey-based analysis, case studies were used to illustrate various types of impacts.

The work found that the SNIFFER / SEPA programme produced good calibre research work of high relevance. It also measured the timescale required for the research to achieve impact (which can exceed five years), and the obstacles to impact being achieved. The reports from the work are available from SNIFFER's website (SNIFFER Research Impacts Report) and provide useful guidance for research managers who wish to maximise the impact of their programmes. The key advice from the work is summarises in a set of Golden Rules for Research Impact.

Meagher et al