Maximising Impact

The social sciences are essential to developing the international competitiveness of UK business and the wellbeing of citizens in the UK and beyond. Providing a high quality social science knowledge and evidence base, which is at the heart of the ESRC's mission, is fundamental to addressing a range of economic and social issues within the UK and globally. To achieve this, active two-way dialogue and collaboration between social scientists and potential users throughout the research process and beyond is crucial.

Scientific excellence is a core value throughout the ESRC, and is a prerequisite for effective knowledge transfer. We support the highest quality research, train the researchers of the future, and make sure that they have the methods, data and other resources they need to produce deep insights into economic and social questions.

The ESRC creates and supports impact through its five strategic objectives:

The concept of 'impact' in the social sciences applies to all sectors: public, private and third. It embraces economic and societal impact in the sense of direct and often quantifiable economic benefits; wider social impacts that will benefit society more generally such as effects on the environment, public health or quality of life; and impacts on government policy, the third sector and professional practice.

These wider aspects are crucial.There is a significant cost to the public purse of a failed policy and significant benefit from a successful one. Many of the policies of the last decade in relation to benefits and family tax credits, for example, have been informed by rigorous social science research, most of it funded by the ESRC. Similarly, public sector productivity and a healthy workforce are as important to the UK's economic wellbeing as increased profits in the private sector.We believe that social science research can and should have ongoing and significant impacts.

Engaging with potential research users from the earliest stage of the research process is a key factor in helping to ensure the findings are subsequently taken up and exploited. Our work has shown that sustained contacts with users are the most important determinants of policy impact. It is important that researchers and policymakers share a mutual understanding of the relevance of each other’s interests and activities, helping to deepen understandings of the way in which academic research can add value and offer insights to key issues of concern for policymakers.

The flow of people, researchers and users between sectors is one of the most effective mechanisms for knowledge exchange and facilitating dialogue to develop connections and understanding.

The ESRC understands that delivering impact is only possible through collaboration with other stakeholders in and beyond the social science community. Support and incentives for engagement with policy, business and third sectors by researchers are needed.The ESRC is committed to developing mechanisms to enable researchers to maximise the impact of research, such as the Follow on Fund.We encourage researchers actively to consider the pathways to impact that might be developed through the life course of research and we are improving the monitoring and capturing of the impact of the work we fund.

The following pages include a description of each objective, case studies which demonstrate the breadth of impact ESRC funded research can have, and future priorities to enhance and strengthen the impact of our work.