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Elements

The impact module allows you to capture emerging indicators of research impact resulting from your work, track how these connect to your research and develop narratives to underpin impact case studies. It follows an impact journey from planning stages to evidence

Users can

-collect and collate data to demonstrate the societal, environmental and economic impact of a piece of research

-attach supporting documentation as evidence

- link impact records to other users, publications, grants (sources of funding) and impact activities. 

Impact activity types

Describe your impact goals and how you plan to achieve research impact; can be modified from your personal aspirations or adapted from funding applications. Use an Impact Plan as a 'hub' to link together publications, grants, impact narratives, engagement activities and impact indicators. 

Stage: Planning for impact

Details of engagements eg. public engagement events, meetings with stakeholders, presentations or appearances at a policy committee etc. These may contribute to your impact narrative. 

Stage: Pathway to impact 

Record a narrative of events describing your research impact.  This can link together engagement activities, impact indicators and additional information that contributes to the narrative of your impact.  Add further entries at any point. 

Stage: Pathway to/ Evidence of impact

Evidence of impact indicators eg. testimonials, new policy, frameworks or legislation, survey responses, performance measures, feedback etc. 

Stage: Evidence of impact

Guidance to follow

Stage: Case study

1.From your Elements homepage select + ADD NEW under Impact activities. 

2.Select the impact activity type from the list displayed.

3. By default, impact activity records are set to Private and are only visible to you, any linked users and certain users with Elements reporting permissions.  If you wish, you can change the Privacy setting to either

Internal - visible to other Elements users but will not display on your public profile

Public - impact activity will display on your public profile. 

3.Specify your relationship to the activity eg. Lead contributor of/ Contributes to and, if applicable the relationship privacy

4.Use the boxes to include as much information as you wish about the activity. To add information about a connected organisation use the sub-boxes to enter details of the organisation, address etc. then select +Add to add the entry to the Organisation field.

5.Save the activity.  When prompted, add links to any additional users and provide further evidence by attaching documentation,  contact details or links to external websites. 

6. To create additional impact activities, select Add Another and repeat the above steps. 

7. If appropriate, use Relationships to create links between this new activity and your  Impact Plan, other records of impact , users, publications or  grants. 

Elements can support links between an Impact Plan, Users, Publications, Grants, Professional activity, Teaching activity and other Records of Impact. 

1.From your Elements homepage, navigate to your Records of Impact, and select the impact activity you wish to edit. 

2.Select the eye icon to edit the privacy settings 

3.Select the pencil icon to edit the record

4. Add information to, or delete information from each field as necessary. Select Save to save your changes

5. To edit a relationship, navigate to the Relationships box.

To add a new relationship, select Create New, and select the activity type you would like to link to eg. publication, professional activity, another Record of Impact. 

To edit an exiting relationship, select the relationship and select Edit.   Change the information in the boxes and select Save. 

To remove an existing relationship, select the relationship and select Delete

Elements can support links (relationships) between an Impact User, Publication, Grant, Professional activity, Teaching activity and an other Record of Impact. 

6. Select Done to return to the Record of Impact. 

1. From your Elements homepage, navigate to your Records of Impact, and select the activity you would like to attach evidence to.

2. Scroll down to the Supporting evidence box and select the Pencil icon to manage your evidence

3. The options available are

Attach a document - attached documents are stored within Elements and can be downloaded. 

Provide a link

Add contact details 

4. Select Done to save your attached evidence and return to the Record of Impact. 

Attached supporting evidence will not display in your public profile.