Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher
Lived Experiences, New Perspectives

Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher documents experiences and perspectives on the emerging concept of research impact from a range of disciplines and places them within an analytical and critical discursive framework. Combining personal reflections with research essays, it provides the reader with a multi-dimensional perspective on research impact and how it connects to the research lives and practice of early career researchers.

Research impact is playing an ever-increasing role in international research policy and government strategy. This book:

• Explores the arrival of impact into the national research consciousness
• Discusses how to build capacity and skills within research impact and how this might impact academic career progression in an international job market
• Offers advice on balancing national expectations with institutional expectations on research in terms of funding and career progression
• Offers suggested ways forward whilst actively challenging what constitutes research impact

Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher provides a much-needed research base for studies of research impact and the extent to which it has altered, changed, and influenced the research practice of early career academics. It is an essential guide for any new and early career researchers wishing to navigate the complex landscape in order to meaningfully contribute to the impact agenda.

Foreword; ii About this Book; iii Acknowledgements; iv List of Contributors; Section One: Research Impact and Me; Chapter One: Uncertainty and Confusion: The Starting Point of All Expertise; Reflection: Start Small, Think Big: The Hard Path to Success for the ECR; Chapter Two: Developing an academic identity: What’s the time Mrs Wolf?; Reflection: Reflexivity, doubt and social tensions in collaborative research as a foundation for positive research impact; Chapter Three 3: Creative-Practice Research, Impact and the REF; Reflection: Thinking Laterally: A Public Health Practitioner's View of Impact; Section Two: Research Impact and Collaboration; Chapter Four: Knowledge Exchange as Impact; Reflection: Communicating Research to Policymakers; Chapter Five: Experimenting with Interdisciplinarity: Researcher development and the production of impact; Reflection: Research impacts of engineering for society, with society; Chapter Six: Connecting Epistemologies and the Early Career Researcher; Reflection: Collaborative work of early career researchers: does the impact agenda transcend continents?; Section Three: Research Impact Systems and Structures; Chapter Seven: Propelled for take-off? The Case of Early Career Social Science Researchers in South Africa; Reflection: International Impact: What is the problem? Can I solve it and will anyone benefit?; Chapter Eight: Doctoral Education and the Impact Gap: What we can learn from ‘Prof Docs’ and why it matters for Early Career researchers?; Reflection: Knowledge Transfer Partnership, the ECR, and the Humanities; Chapter Nine: Engaging with the Impact Ecosystem; Reflection: Putting Social Responsibility at the Heart of the Institution: The Research Experience and Career Development of Early Career Researchers

Kieran Fenby-Hulse is an Assistant Professor in Research Capability and Development at Coventry University, UK.

Emma Heywood is a Lecturer and Researcher in Journalism, Politics and Communication at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Kate Walker is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Advances in Behavioural Science at Coventry University, UK.