Making an Impact Week

Making an Impact Week (MaIW) was a new initiative aimed at providing a week of rich, varied and high-quality development opportunities for researchers at all stages of their career. The week, 11-15 June 2018, was timed to augment the University’s engagement with the International Business Festival 2018 (now the Good Business Festival), enabling development focused interventions designed to enhance the skills, knowledge and expertise of researchers at the University of Liverpool in relation to the impact of their work.  

A mix of external and internal speakers and facilitators engaged colleagues from the University in thinking about research impact – how it can be conceptualised, enriched, supported and sustained. Over 800 registrations, comprising approximately 400 individual participants engaged with 5 days of intensive development activity delivered by 90 speakers and facilitators across 28 sessions, including 1:1 surgeries, panel Q&As, facilities tours, keynotes, workshops, micro-seminars and showcases. The sessions were specifically designed to foster conversation and interaction, in support of The Academy’s ambitions for a borderless research community here at Liverpool.

Liverpool at 2030: What it should look like and how we should get there

A joint keynote by Mark Basnett (Liverpool LEP) and Professor Mark Boyle (Heseltine Institute) about the Liverpool City Region’s growing and uneven recovery as well as the city’s huge potential. The city region now has a metro mayor and combined authority, a national industrial strategy (and associated infrastructural strategy) and is well-placed to embrace a low carbon future, smart technologies and the digital age, welfare service reform, the circular economy, a jobs and skills strategy, and inclusive economic development

View and listen to these talks:

Order of play:
1. Introduction by Professor Michael Parkinson, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Civic Engagement
2. Mark Basnett presenting on 'Liverpool City Region 2030 - Challenges, Opportunities & the Role of the University' 
3. Professor Mark Boyle presenting on 'Liverpool City Region Vision for 2040 - Context, Commentary, Contributions'
4. Discussion on 'How the University of Liverpool Can Support and Contribute'

Download the presentations:
Mark Basnett
Professor Mark Boyle

Accelerating Innovation through the Industrial Strategy

A keynote by Dr Rick Holland (Innovate UK), who discussed the Government’s Industrial Strategy and associated funding opportunities. The session was hosted by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Impact, Professor Anthony Hollander, who highlighted the mechanisms and support in place at the University of Liverpool to make the most of the Industrial Strategy opportunities, in addition to the successes in securing funding for innovative projects that the University has had so far.

View and listen to this talk:

Download the presentation:
Dr Rick Holland

Making an Impact Week also included a Twitter competition about the impact of development activity. 

Reporting

The Academy has produced a MaIW Evaluation Report showing how the event successfully achieved its core purpose of supporting the University’s Strategy in relation to research and impact.
The themes arising from participants’ (n=240) qualitative feedback indicate the successful development of core knowledge, skills and capabilities in relation to research impact. These outcomes include the development of personal, socio-cultural, cognitive, and professional competencies. Participants’ quantitative feedback was similarly positive; 82% said that respective sessions were relevant to their current needs, and an overwhelming 90% affirmed that respective sessions were useful to their future needs/career plans. The success of MaIW also relates back to the University’s commitments to the support and career development of researchers in accordance with The Academy’s actions within the University’s 2017-2019 Concordat Implementation Plan.