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Abstract
This report documents the results of a series of workshops organised by the Institute of Global Development at UNSW as part of a project initiated by the Research for Development Impact (RDI) network. Approximately 30 participants – mainly academic researchers, although some also with extensive experience in development practice – took part in three workshops, during which six research projects were presented as case studies to stimulate a discussion on how research can lead to development impacts. Key elements emerging from the discussions are presented in this report.
A range of ideas, assumptions, frameworks and metrics concerning ‘impact’ in academia and in development practice are presented in the discussion. They provide examples of diverse types of impact, and of the processes through which impact occurs across a range of contexts and issues. They also highlight the different positions of a range of institutions or actors within the development sector, spanning research, policy and practice, and pointing to the challenges of having one framework that would adequately encompass this variation.
On the whole, this publication provides significant insights into how academics actually understand and operationalise ideas of impact through their research.
