How is the Information Used by My Funder?
How the information submitted via Researchfish is used by your funder
Your funder(s),research organisation(s) and other stakeholders use the information provided through the Researchfish platform for many different activities depending on their business needs/requirements, see also The 4 A’s of Research Impact Assessment.
These generally fall into 3 main strategic areas outlined below:
1. Communicate and demonstrate the benefits/progress of research funding
This refers to the more outwardly focussed uses such as advocacy for further research investment and funding, accountability and communications around this. For example performance reporting, providing evidence for reviews and general communications to stakeholders.
Examples:
- The Power of Research, 10 years of Crohn’s & Colitis UK Research
- Association of Medical Research Charities, Making a difference impact report 2021
- Societal Impact of Novo Nordisk Foundation grants 2020
- Cystic Fibrosis, How our research makes a difference: the trust’s research impact report
- NIHR Researchfish Update 2021
2. Strategy/policy development
This may include evaluation and analysis of research areas or funding mechanisms, providing supporting information for strategic discussions or using the information for strategic studies to look at the research environment and better target funding/donations.
Examples:
- MRC translational research report
- Review of the National Preventative Research Initiative (web archive)
- ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’, Association of Medical Research Charities response to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper April 2017
3. Studies/analysis to better understand research and how it leads to impact
This in depth analysis can then help stakeholders to improve and optimise impact, better understand research pathways, inform decision making and therefore better support the research environment.
Examples:
- Diversity Approach for Research Evaluation (DARE) approach to the evaluation of research initiatives which will utilise Researchfish data in the next phase
- What is the relationship between public and private investment in science, research, and innovation?
If you want to understand more about how data gets into and out of Researchfish as well as what information we pass on to third parties, please see What Happens to the Information I enter into Researchfish?
What does this mean practically?
| Some uses & examples | |
| Responsible metrics |
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Short narratives
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Examples of outcomes from research to show progress in specific areas of research or that relate to specific types of funding. |
To build case studies |
To describe the outcomes of one or multiple research projects that relate together and demonstrate the resulting impact, and often parts of the pathway and collaborative work that lead to it.
See the reports on the Researchfish ‘Success Stories’ page or AMRC’s Sample Impact Reports for examples. Also many case studies from the Research Excellence Framework https://www.ref.ac.uk/. |
Comms pieces - blogs, timelines |
All of the above, but often more directed at a lay audience and written in the form of blogs, timelines, short videos, podcasts etc.
Check your funder(s) and research organisation(s) websites. |
Answer Stakeholder Questions |
Funders, research managers and others are frequently asked questions that this data can help them to answer quickly and accurately, and without relying on their existing knowledge. These may be from government, trustees, steering groups, decision making boards and so on, these are very varied, impossible to predict and often with a short response time (e.g. 1-2 hours).
For example: “How will Brexit affect the research base in the UK? Which research groups can we contact who are working on XXXX?”; “What research is underway that relates to ‘a specific country’?”; “How are patients and the public involved in the research you manage?” |
Open data/data sharing
Several funders are now making the data collected publicly available e.g. UKRI do this via the Gateway to Research and the Association of Medical Research Charities and other organisations via the Health Open Research Platform, this is for a variety of reasons which includes visibility of what is being funded, to enable collaboration, use in landscaping analysis and so on.
For some useful tips on how to optimise your Researchfish submission, which outlines some things to consider and also things to aim to avoid please see this document Tips to Optimise your Researchfish Submission.
Any questions relating to your grant or reporting requirements can be directed to your funder who will be better placed to answer queries about what they specifically use the information for - their contact details can be found by going to the ‘Our Community’ tab when you are logged into Researchfish, and selecting the relevant funder.