Category: Blogs

I haven’t blogged for a while, mainly because of the pace of life and the ever present distraction of cheese, but I had the pleasure of attending the Impact Ignite conference last week and it’s prompted me to get writing. Let me first say a massive congratulations to Tamika Heiden (Research Impact Academy) and her…

I was delighted to be asked to speak at the Vitae International Researcher Development Conference 2025 (Bristol 23/9/25, #VitaeCon2025). During my talk I flagged quite a few references, so here they are (in the order they appeared).

I realise my last ‘job’ related post was in September 2024, just after I’d left the University of Lincoln and was uncertain about what was next. Well I was incredibly fortunate in October 2024 to secure a role as Director of Research Impact and Culture (Associate Professor) at Northeastern University London. NUL has a fairly…

Resources flagged during the event:

I realise I haven’t posted for a while, and I also realise that unless you’re following me on the artist formerly known as X or LinkedIn, you won’t know why. Some of you will be aware I took the decision to leave the University of Lincoln over the summer. Not an easy decision, but the…

I was delighted to be invited to deliver the keynote at the BPS Psychology Research day on 9th November 2023. Focused (unsurprisingly!) on research impact, in this talk I covered what research is, what impact is (and isn’t), gave some examples of impact from psychology research and talked about principles of practice. It’s always a…

I’m extremely proud to have been part of this NHS Health Research Authority led project on improving people’s involvement in research. Below is a link to the post on The Lincoln Impact Literacy Institute website with fuller details. Check it out!

Some of you will know about my blood clot history. Potted version – a larger-than-should-be-fair deep vein thrombosis after having a baby in 2008, unsuccessful vein bypass surgery in 2010, a stupid and unexpected clot in 2016, a few other clots here and there until TA-DA I’m fixed by venous stents in 2018. Whilst the…

I spoke at the Research Impact Academy Research Impact Summit (Twitter #RISummit) this week, a fabulous free annual event, make sure to check it out! As a follow up on twitter I was asked by @BellaReichard about my comments on Shiny vs. Authentic case studies. I tried and failed to write a short twitter response,…

The questions below are a summary of queries raised in the DHP session, with some responses from me 🙂 Is theory building impact? Impact is the provable benefit of research in the real world. Ie, the effects felt by people, business, the economy, the environment (etc) which arise somehow from our research. The way we…

This post accompanies a Division of Health Psychology BREATHE pre-conference workshop, June 2021 I have always felt immensely lucky to call myself a Health Psychologist. I mean, like legitimately, not some kind of niche fancy dress situation. Anyway, one of the things that has always kept me gravitationally pulled to health psychology (HP), even as…

This post accompanies a talk at the Westminster Forum Projects | Next steps for the REF – independence and positive research environments, delivering and measuring impact, and the future of open access event, 23/3/21. Slides available here A while ago I was invited to speak at the Westminster Forum in a panel session entitled “Research…

The original version of this article was first published in Research Professional’s Funding Insight service” on 6th February 2020 So that’s it. On 26 January the government confirmed its intention to cut impact sections from grant applications. RIP Pathways to Impact, then. As we move swiftly through the five stages of collective grief (although according…

An earlier version of this post appeared on the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) blog Whilst academics and clinicians alike are well aware of the need to ‘make research useful’, formal expectations around impact have pushed us to assume only large scale effects are ‘worthy’. With continued pressure to secure funding and ‘do more…

Thanks to all those who came to the impact literacy session at the BPS Northern Ireland conference (April 2019). References to everything discussed in the talk are below (selected slides to follow!). IMPACT LITERACY AND SKILLS Impact literacy workbook and Impact Institutional Healthcheck available at https://www.emeraldpublishing.com/resources/ Bayley, J.E. and Phipps, D. (2017) Building the concept…

I’ve taken a step back in recent times from Twitter. Well social media in general to be honest. It felt like I needed to, but I couldn’t at the time articulate why. I have, for the large part of late 2018 and early 2019 been fairly unwell, so that’s probably the main issue. The stents…

I’m sat in Nice airport having just spoken at an event where I was invited to speak about my (patient) experience of Post Thrombotic Syndrome. Basically if you’ve ever heard me mention ‘my leg‘, that’s shorthand for ‘veins-battered-by-multiple-DVTs-leaving-me-in-constant-pain-and-struggling-to-walk. Otherwise known as PTS. Last year I had venous stents fitted – a fairly new(ish) procedure where…

*Blog post relates to talks at PraxisAuril (October 2018) and Swansea University ((May 2019). This post summarises the talk (slides available here)* First things first, what do we mean by research impact? If we look at various definitions underpinning funding (eg UKRI) and assessment (eg REF) they ultimately coalesce as the ‘provable change (benefit) of…

Thanks to all those who came to the impact literacy session at the Division of Health Psychology Conference (Friday 7th September, 2018). References to everything discussed in the talk are below. IMPACT LITERACY AND SKILLS Impact literacy workbook and Impact Institutional Healthcheck available at https://www.emeraldpublishing.com/resources/ Bayley, J.E. and Phipps, D. (2017) Building the concept of…

(I just remembered this when looking through my files…..originally published by Research Fortnight…….still rings true) As I write this, I’m sitting on a train. I won’t lie, I’m in first class. Admittedly it’s because I stumbled on a great advanced deal, but whatever the reason, my mum is still taking this as a measure that…

And so we’ve had INORMS. What a week. Frustratingly I spent whatever time I wasn’t impact’ing limping slowly between rooms or collapsed in a heap. Thanks to all who helped out in various ways. After the ARMA conference I routinely write a blog summary of the Impact Special Interest Group (SIG) session (see those from 2016…

Impact beyond the REF. Consider that for a moment. What does that mean? What would that look like? And with REF so often synonymised with impact in the UK, how can we extract ourselves from its dominant voice? I was invited to deliver the opening plenary – alongside Melanie Knetsch (ESRC’s Strategic Lead for Interdisciplinarity, Innovation…

Are you heading for INORMS in June 2018? Are you secretly thinking about impact, and all the joys it holds? Well, the first step is to admit it. Go on. Treat yourself. Just as with ARMA conferences in the last few years, INORMS offers a fantastic opportunity to connect with the impact community. If you’re…

I’ve just spent a fantastic afternoon in the company of representatives from a range of medical research charities and NIHR. The AMRC Impact coffee club – an informal name for a truly valuable group – provides a platform for AMRC and NIHR colleagues to share practice, discuss impact-related challenges, and move as a community towards…

As I sit here at the ARMA Advanced Routes to Impact training, I’m reminded that whilst having done a blog about impact literacy, I haven’t done one on knowledge broker competencies. So I’ll pull my finger out now….. I’m sat listening to two fascinating talks by Anthony Atkin (University of Reading) and Jacqueline Young (Lancaster…

2018, and time for a new chapter…… I’m completely delighted to have just been appointed to a new and exciting position at the University of Lincoln. From May 2018 I’ll be the new Director of Research Impact Development, a post which will work across the university to build impact strategy and strengthen impact literacy.  Not only will…

We all know public and patient involvement (PPI) is fundamentally important to health research, but what does it mean for impact? How does it challenge our simple definitions of impact? And how can we most meaningfully articulate the benefits of patient involvement in driving real world benefits? Yesterday I attended a fantastic first meeting of…

Impact is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to impact.* Nah. Impact is change. Simples. We just want it to be mind-bogglingly and intergalactically big because REF and…

Yesterday I took part in a REF Impact consultation event in London. This workshop formed part of the broader consultation REF are undertaking with the sector to iron out some of the remaining issues following the ‘final decisions’ announced in November.  In attendance were several of the main panel chairs, sub-panel chairs, senior university staff…