Our contribution

At UCD, we are committed to excellence in research and innovation, and to delivering local, national and global impact. Browse our catalogue of case studies for examples of the meaningful contributions UCD researchers have made in the world.

The challenge of impact

To plan, capture, communicate and monitor impact, you need to think carefully about the various ways people can benefit from your research. This is more important than ever, as major funding bodies around the world now consider impact a fundamental aspect of almost all research programmes, and we have various tools and resources to help you.

Research Impact Toolkit

Our Impact Toolkit will help you think meaningfully about impact, no matter where you are on your research journey. It includes five sections:

1. What is impact? 
   Learn about the impact journey, including the many different types of impact your research can have.
2. Plan
   Identify who in society stands to benefit from your research, and work out how to engage with the right people to create impact.
3. Capture
   Gather evidence of the impact your research has had.
4. Communicate
   Write convincingly about the research and its impact, whether in a funding proposal or an impact case study.
5. Monitor
   Track whether your research is being picked up and used by a wider audience.

Impact workshops and seminars

We regularly run tailored workshops and host seminars with national and international impact experts to teach you about the complex area of research impact. Keep an eye on this page for information about future seminars. We will communicate about future workshops as they are confirmed.

Research Impact Case Study Competition

We run a yearly competition to build capacity in capturing research impact. It encourages all researchers, regardless of discipline, to consider and celebrate the societal and economic impact of their work.

The competition offers researchers at UCD an opportunity to develop a short case study, with illustrative images, highlighting the impact of their research to an external, non-specialist audience. Winning case studies from previous competitions can be seen here, and more UCD Impact Case Studies are available here.