Pursuing Diverse Forms of Impact in Scientific Research

Scientists and supporting institutions seek to generate research that has impact. In addition to basic research focused on scientific knowledge-building, there are national and international calls to foster research that incorporates direct benefits to society, economies, communities, marginalized groups, end-users, taxpayers, agencies, stakeholders, and environments (Bornmann 2013, Morgan 2014, Penfield et al. 2014). However, while there is an increasing desire for research to integrate diverse impacts (Reed et al. 2021), there remain gaps in resources to conduct research activities that have benefit beyond the academy. Many researchers are trained in research that builds scientific knowledge and incentivized to disseminate this knowledge through peer-reviewed publications that may be inaccessible or filled with disciplinary jargon. Other forms of impact are less supported despite personal desire and institutional discourse (Heath et al. 2014). While robust advice exists regarding science communication, outreach, and exposure (e.g. Skrip 2015), guidance for other forms of impact is less developed, resulting in a narrow set of objectives and strategies to expand the benefits of research activities (Nadkarni and Stasch 2013, Gould et al. 2019, Woodson and Boutilier 2023). Simply put, the desire for a variety of research impacts has not yet been matched by actionable guidance, training, and other support necessary to achieve it.

As a community of early-career researchers working on pressing environmental and water management issues, we desire to increase the impact of our research along dimensions beyond what is often required in grant applications or performance evaluations. We recognize the value of basic science, however, in reviewing our training and guidance in the literature, we have found limited advice for pursuing some types of impact that are critical in our fields to effectively address social and ecological problems. In this paper, we aim to help bridge this gap and support researchers who want to diversify the impact of their research. We draw on current literature and our own experiences to develop a framework for setting intentions, developing strategies, and navigating challenges to achieve increased impact.

There are many ways to categorize impact and we discuss five types that are important for environmental and water issues: scientific (builds knowledge and advances the state of science), project or programmatic (improves the implementation of interventions, such as a restoration project or water infrastructure management), organizational (shapes the management practices and methods used by entire organizations and professions across multiple projects and programs), policy (guides or informs policies, regulations, and political priorities), and community (contributes to fulfilling community needs, benefits the day-to-day experiences of people). Each type of impact points to different audiences, skills, and considerations. At the same time, these categories are not discrete nor hierarchically ordered and categories may overlap as well as influence each other (see Fig. 1).

In the following, we distill general questions and considerations for designing, implementing, and communicating research (Steps toward increasing research impact). We then discuss specific challenges to the pursuit of each type of impact and suggest opportunities for navigating these challenges (Challenges and opportunities for increasing research impact). Our aim is not to suggest all research should pursue multiple types of impact but rather to develop fodder for conversation and actionable ideas for individuals, teams, and institutions who wish to diversify the impact of their research.

While each category of impact (Fig. 2) has its own challenges and opportunities, there are generalizable considerations and we offer a series of questions researchers may use to explore opportunities to increase and diversify the impact of their work. The questions are meant as discussion prompts to help researchers more intentionally identify desired impacts, incorporate these impacts into research design and implementation, and evaluate trade-offs among various impact outcomes and what can be achieved given constraints. We encourage the consideration of these questions throughout the research process and specifically at earlier phases when research is envisioned and designed.

Incorporating considerations for research impact takes work that goes beyond technical requirements for robust science. Additional time, resources, skills, and network connections need to be leveraged. This can be a challenge for busy scientists. We discuss challenges and opportunities for increasing impact along the five impact dimensions.

For researchers trained primarily in scientific methods, it can be challenging to follow through on desires to expand research impact beyond the academy. Despite continued calls for broader impact, there are gaps in training, incentives, and advice for those seeking to diversify the impacts of their research activities. Specifically in the domain of environmental and water management issues, we believe that research, when thoughtfully and intentionally designed, has the potential to provide multiple benefits beyond scientific impact. Here we attempt to bridge this gap by providing information to help scientists more deliberately incorporate impact considerations into their research design and think outside of academic domains. We specifically offer a framework for considering five types of impact, questions for thinking through research and setting intentions with impacts in mind, and advice regarding specific challenges and opportunities related to each impact category.

We intend these as starting points for discussion in considering and planning for impact. In real-world applications, pursuing diverse forms of impact is context-dependent. Researchers will need to contend with additional complexities, such as blurred boundaries among impact categories, unique challenges and opportunities, and the often multidirectional and indirect relationship between science and society. Further, we recognize that many important forms of impact are incremental and influenced by several actors over a period of time and space. Consequently, it may be challenging to comprehensively plan for impact within the scope of a single project. Nonetheless, an explicit and prior consideration of impact within every project can cumulatively contribute to improved socio-economic and ecological benefits of research.

The authors have no known conflicts of interest.