What is impact?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘Impact’ as follows: ‘to have an influence on something’, or, in business English, ‘a powerful effect that something, especially something new, has on someone or something’ (Cambridge Dictionary). Broadly speaking, you could say that impact is any effect your (research) work has on someone, something, or some situation. All research will have some impact, but the impact can be in different domains: scientific impact, societal impact, economic impact, technological impact, or impact on your scientific career (in the case of personal grants). Most research will have an impact in multiple domains, but to different extents, depending on how applied or theoretical your work is.
When you apply for funding, it is important to remember that the funding agency has a reason to give you money. They typically want your work to have a specific societal, technological or economic effect that fits the funder’s agenda. In other words, they want your research to have a specific impact. Calls that require specific impact can be found, for example in Pillar II of Horizon Europe and in the NWO programmes NWA, Perspectief and KIC. Different funding agencies have different goals and use different frameworks for defining impact, leading to different proposal requirements. However, there is always a plan behind the money (no free lunch...). Therefore, to increase your chance of success when applying for funding, it is crucial to be aware of the funder's goals, create a work plan that attempts to meet these goals, and clearly describe this in your application. By analogy, if the funding agency asks you for a car, you might make the most amazing bike ever, but you will not meet the agency’s expectations and will not give you funding.
On these pages in the Service Portal, we will explain how to approach impact in research proposals and which thinking strategy and way of working you can adapt to become effective in formalizing the impact proposal sections.
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