The CERCA Institute has undertaken key work to improve the research impact capacity and culture in the ecosystem of CERCA research centres. This effort has been led by David Phipps and the Research Impact Assessment Advisory Board (CERCA RIAAB), and complemented by an in-depth training exercise run by Julie Bayley. One of the deliverables of this process is this glossary of research impact terminology. This details the terminologies most broadly used by practitioners of research impact assessment, recognising that they sometimes vary across countries or practices.
It blends terminology used in Anglo-Saxon countries (namely the UK, Canada and Australia) with that used in Continental Europe (mainly but not only in the Netherlands) and, most importantly for the CERCA context, by the European Commission.
This glossary is the result of multiple contributions, mainly from the members of the CERCA RIAAB and Dr Julie Bayley. The CERCA RIAAB’s composition is:
- Dr David Phipps, Chair (Director of Research Impact Canada and VP for Research Strategy & Impact at York University (Toronto, Canada)
- Dr Paula Adam, Director of the Research Lab at AQuAS (Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia)
- Esther de Smet, Senior research policy advisor, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Dr Jane Millar, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath (UK)
- Dr Miguel Sierra, Innovation and Communication Manager at INIA Uruguay
- Dr Susan Renoe, Associate Vice Chancellor at the University of Missouri & Executive Director of the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (USA)
- Anne-Maree Dowd, Executive Manager Performance and Evaluation Strategy, CSIRO, Australia
- Leonie van Drooge, LvD Impact & Evaluation (the Netherlands) (until October 2022)
- Elena Canetti, Co-managing partner at Inveniam Group (Barcelona) (until January 2023)
- Dr Lluís Rovira, director of the CERCA Institution until February 2024, ex officio RIAAB member (until March 2024)
