Making an Impact Frequently Asked Questions

Creating a welcoming and inclusive environment

Making an Impact 2025

What is new about Making an Impact 2025?

Delivery: Making an Impact 2025 will be delivered over four weeks, 6th - 30th May, with a mix of in-person and online sessions.

Updated Making an Impact Framework: The Making an Impact Framework is a structure through which each programme participant can practice, consolidate and generalise their learning. All sessions in Making an Impact 2025 are aligned to this framework to ensure that they are relevant to your needs as a researcher.

The themes in this framework are linked to the strategic priorities outlined in Liverpool 2031 and the seven perspectives of knowledge exchange activity outlined in the Knowledge Exchange Framework.

As a participant, we encourage you to create your own bespoke personalised pathway of engagement with the sessions on offer so that you can engage at a time and frequency that best suits your research impact needs, ambitions and interests.

1:1 coaching: At the heart of the series is valuing your own professional practice and impact. We are offering specialised 1:1 coaching for all academic staff from postdocs to research fellows to principal investigators (PIs), on the following themes:

When is Making an Impact 2025 taking place?

Making an Impact 2025 will be taking place from Tuesday 6 May to Friday 30 may 2025.

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The Making an Impact Series

What is the Making an Impact Series

Making an Impact is an award-winning flagship event run by The Academy of transformative live and self-directed activities that promise to inspire and engage you with knowledge exchange and research impact. It aims to foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and knowledge exchange within the University of Liverpool community. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or just starting your journey in academia, this series will offer sessions curated to help you expand your research horizons and unlock your potential to create a real-world impact.

Sessions are a mix of online and in-person formats and include research facility/centre tours, specialised 1:1 coaching, and a new Making an Impact Framework to help you design your learning experience.

The emphasis of Making an Impact 2025 is on developing individual practice and enhancing researcher skills and knowledge in engagement and impact. The programme has been purposely designed to provide the space and time for participants to reflect on their own strengths and areas of impact development through self-directed resources and coaching.

When does it take place?

The Series takes place during the month of May and early June. The first series in 2018 was delivered over a week and in 2019 over 7 weeks. However, since 2020 the series now takes place over 4-5 weeks, with the third week being timetabled as a Reflection Week that includes pre-recorded sessions that can be accessed at any time and are linked to many of the live sessions throughout the other four weeks. In 2025, the Series runs for 4 weeks with two Reflection Weeks.

What is the Making an Impact Framework?

The Making an Impact Framework is a structure through which each programme participant can practice, consolidate and generalise their learning.

As a participant, you will be able to create your own bespoke personalised pathway of engagement with the sessions on offer so that you can engage at a time and frequency that best suits your research impact needs, ambitions and interests.

Coming soon: Making an Impact Framework toolkit, which will include guidance and resources to support your use of this framework and your engagement with the Making an Impact Series.

Key themes for 2025

Strategic Collaboration: Building high-impact partnerships across disciplines, sectors and global networks to drive meaningful change
Media Influence and Research Visibility: Mastering media engagement to amplify research impact, shape public discourse and enhance credibility
Project and Team Leadership: Cultivating dynamic leadership skills to inspire, empower and drive research engagement and impact
Planning for grants and REF2029: Developing robust strategies for securing funding and maximising REF2029 success through high quality research planning

Is Making an Impact Face to Face or virtual?

Making an Impact 2025 contains a mix of virtual and face-to-face sessions, which are designed to support an inclusive and collaborative experience at the Series. The format of each session is highlighted in the programme.

Who can attend Making an Impact sessions?

Staff at all career levels are invited to attend Making an Impact, such as academic and research staff with an interest in the research landscape, including research fellows, PI’s, clinical research staff, and research related staff across all faculties.

Sessions are free; however, registration is required and places will be secured on a first come, first served basis.

How can I find out more about the Making an Impact programme?

The programme is advertised regularly via staff news articles and on LinkedIn through The Academy. An online programme is available on the Making an Impact 2025 webpages on the Researcher Hub.

Staff can engage with 60-90 minute masterclasses and more in-depth 120-300 minute workshops. Varied and rich online resources, including podcasts and livestreams can also be accessed outside of the programmes timetable. The Making an Impact resource bank is available here

Do I need to register for sessions?

Yes, you must register for all sessions. Registration is free of charge. Some sessions will have limited numbers so please register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Please do not register (or please cancel your registration) if you do not plan to attend otherwise you may prevent someone else from taking part.

When registering for sessions please ensure you use your institutional email address. Any joining instructions will be sent to the email address you registered with.

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Joining the sessions

Why haven’t I received the joining instructions?

All joining instructions are sent directly from Eventbrite 2 days and then again 2 hours before the session. As well as your email inbox, we recommend checking any subfolders linked to your inbox. Please note that you need to register for the session(s) for joining instructions to be sent to you. Registration closes 3 hours before the session starts.

For sessions delivered online, what platform is Making an Impact hosted on?

All online Making an Impact session take place on Zoom. We recommend that you download the Zoom app, although you will also be able to join sessions on Zoom via your browser – in that case, it is recommended that you use Google Chrome.

I already have the Zoom app. Do I have to do anything else?

If you already have the Zoom app, we would urge you to update your Zoom application. This can be done via your Zoom app, by going to Settings/Check for updates. This will take approximately 2 minutes to update. Zoom is constantly making changes and improvements and doing this will provide you with all of the Zoom functionalities needed to fully engage with the session(s).

What happens when I join?

You’ll be admitted to a waiting room until the session starts, you will be made aware of any delays in the starting of the session via the waiting room chat.

I'm having technical problems and can’t get into the session – what do I do?

Make sure you’re using the Zoom link for the correct session you received in your inbox. Please also ensure you are using the same Zoom email and username that you registered with in Eventbrite. If you are still experiencing issues, try updating Zoom or rebooting or switching to another internet enabled device. You can also email researcher@liverpool.ac.uk. Many of the sessions are recorded so you may be able to access them afterwards if problems persist.

I’m running late and worried about disturbing the session – what do I do?

When you join, you will be sent first to a waiting room. When you are ‘let in’ to the session you will be automatically muted and your camera switched off, so you won’t disturb the session.

The session that I want to register for is sold out. What happens now?

We would encourage you to add your name to the waitlist. If a ticket becomes available, you will be contacted automatically with further instructions on how to redeem your free ticket. No further action is required.

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Linked Resources

Are there any resources I can access online?

To complement the University’s flagship Making an Impact Series a rich and high-quality bank of resources has been designed. These include TED talks, blogs, podcasts, toolkits, checklists, as well as recordings of many of the sessions that have been part of the Series. All resources are themed by key research-impact objectives.

The content continues to be regularly updated, including all recorded sessions from each Making an Impact programme providing a great opportunity for those that were unable to attend the sessions live or would like to revisit them. The pages form a permanent, open-access resource, available for participants to access at a time and place and suits them. The Making an Impact resource bank is available here

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Networking and social media

Can I engage with Making an Impact on social media?

Please follow  The Academy (LinkedIn) and #UniLivImpact25 to engage virtually with colleagues from University of Liverpool and partner institutions.

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Feedback

How can I give feedback on the Making an Impact series?

A survey is emailed to all participants following each session they attend. The survey is anonymous and the feedback received contributes to the planning and design of future events.

What evaluation model are you using for the Making an Impact Series?

The Academy’s evaluations are based on the Kirkpatrick model and we follow up with participants 6 months after an event to explore impacts upon them. By measuring long term outcomes, we can evaluate how engaging with development activities as part of the Making an Impact series has changed or enhanced practice.

Will I receive a certificate of participation for sessions I attend?

A personalised certificate is available for attendance upon request. Please email researcher@liverpool.ac.uk letting them know which session(s) you attended. Certificates will NOT be emailed out automatically.

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Creating a welcoming and inclusive environment

How can a welcoming environment be achieved?

The Academy are committed to providing a diverse, accessible, and inclusive events. We ask that all attendees are respectful of, and welcome the opportunity to engage the ideas of others. We sincerely hope that all our participants and facilitators experience a friendly, dynamic, professionally and personally enriching event that is free from harassment or discrimination. We remind everyone to use appropriate communication that is inter-disciplinary and welcoming to people from many different backgrounds.

Where is the Inclusivity Statement and Code of Conduct for the Making an Impact Series?

The Academy is committed to providing an environment which recognises and values people's differences, capitalises on the strengths that those differences bring to the institution and supports all staff and students in maximising their potential to succeed. In line with the Academy's firm commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, we offer all postdoctoral and research-related staff opportunities to develop and network irrespective of a researcher’s gender, ethnicity, age, self-identification, disability, religious affiliation, or any other criteria used to separate and define. All participants and facilitators are asked to please refer and agree to The Academy's Code of Conduct for events before attending any Making an Impact sessions.

What should I do if I experience or witness inappropriate behaviour?

Please contact the organising team as soon as possible. You can do this by:

Messaging the chair of the session via Zoom immediately: If an incident occurs in a session, send a private chat message to one of the Making an Impact organisation team present (who will be introduced at the start of the session).
Emailing Researcher@liverpool.ac.uk

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Who do I contact if I have questions about the Making an Impact Series?

If you have been unable to find the answer to your question as part of the FAQs or if there is an activity which you think would be useful to you and the wider PGR and research-related staff community, then please contact the Academy’s researcher development team via email at Researcher@liverpool.ac.uk

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