IMPACT SKILLS TRAINING
At WCL, we believe that developing researchers' skills and confidence is at the heart of a successful institutional culture for research impact.
Our training services are specifically designed to bridge the gap between general principles of impact and the 'How do I actually do this?' question.
Whether you prefer self-paced online coaching that you can fit around your busy academic diary, or bespoke in-person workshops, our training offerings can help you and your research colleagues to articulate, plan, and evidence your engagement and impact activity.
Our flagship training, Impact Integrators®, is accessed online via our training platform. For more bespoke or in-person services, including training on Theory of Change, please see our Further Training Offerings.
Impact Integrators®
Foundations of Impact
ONLINE TRAINING PROGRAMME
Our team has drawn on a wealth of experience working in the Research Councils and Universities across Europe to produce the four Impact Integrators® online training courses, which we believe constitute the foundations of impact.
From our experience, researchers and Universities have far more to gain when impact is fully embedded in research culture, rather than treated as a one-off training exercise.
That's why, throughout the courses, you'll hear our founder Saskia Walcott talk about "changing your mindset". For us, this is what it's all about. Whether applying for a grant, developing an impact case study, or networking with partners, our courses are designed to make impact feel second nature to researchers. Something they think about from the very outset, rather than a time-consuming add-on after the event.
Explore the 4 Impact Integrators® courses below.
INTEGRATING IMPACT INTO YOUR EVERYDAY
Our introductory course, Integrating Impact into Your Everyday, provides learners with the confidence and know-how to identify the potential impacts of their research, and most importantly, figuring out how to get there.
Targeted at early-career researchers in particular, we recommend starting with this course. But if you're more experienced, you may prefer to start with one of our topic-specific impact training courses below. By the end of Integrating Impact into Your Everyday, you will have:
The outline of an impact plan
Identified where the remaining gaps in your knowledge are, and an understanding of how to fill those gaps
Started to practice the habits you'll need to maximise the impact potential of your research
Saskia is so clear! The videos are really nicely pitched and so well presented. It's like having a friend working with you to think through impact as a whole.
A mid-career researcher, Aberystwyth University
Enrolled onto our learning platform
767
LEARNERS
Of our training videos and free resources
829
WATCH HOURS
Have registered for our online training programme so far
10+ INSTITUTIONS
WORLDWIDE
FURTHER TRAINING OFFERINGS
BESPOKE & IN-PERSON TRAINING
We recognise that your training needs may be targeted to a specific topic, researcher group or discipline. We are always happy to discuss a bespoke training package.
Similarly, we recognise that some researchers prefer in-person training sessions to explore impact topics in more depth and to receive mentoring and feedback on their impact plans and projects.
Book in a call with one of our consultants to discuss your training needs in more detail and to find out how we could help.
A Theory of Change is increasingly required as part of funding proposals and can be a helpful tool in determining a plan for impact for your research projects and programmes.
We can work directly with small teams and train them to develop their own theory of change, facilitate a theory of change development for their programme or train them as theory of change trainers.
If you’re interested in ToC, read our case study on how we helped a life sciences charity develop theirs, or book in a call with one of our consultants.
THEORY OF CHANGE
IMPACT COMPETITIONS
For international institutions, we offer support with holding an impact competition for research staff, including:
-
hosting introductory webinars;
-
co-designing impact narrative templates and success criteria;
-
1-2-1 mentoring sessions with impact narrative authors; and
-
participating in judging panels.
These impact competitions are a great way to kick-start a new culture for impact at your university, and we have already had great success at HEIs in Ireland and Portugal.