Research impact is often communicated through citation counts and h-indexes. Publication alone, however, is not a measure of true societal impact beyond the walls of academia. Research can lead to impact in many (often unpredictable) ways. What happens between a finished study and a changed policy, product, or practice is rarely a straight line.
The Generating Research Impact programme outlines six distinct pathways in which research can make tangible societal impact. The pathway a project takes shapes how quickly its value is felt, how it should be tracked, and how it needs to be communicated. Understanding these pathways is becoming essential, not just for researchers hoping to see their work matter, but for institutions increasingly expected to demonstrate the real-world value of what they fund.
Research impact rarely follows a straight line from publication to real-world change.
Six Pathways Research Can Take to Create Impact
1. Linear
The linear pathway is the most intuitive: a straightforward progression from research to application, where findings are adopted in a fairly direct and predictable way. When an engineer develops a more efficient solar panel design and manufacturers adopt it soon after, the route from laboratory to market is clear and the stakeholders are identifiable. That doesn’t make it easy. The linear route still depends on active dissemination and relationship-building with the people who will use the research.
2. Co-Production
Some of the most durable impact comes from research shaped by the people it is meant to serve, not delivered to them after the fact. In one project, faculty from universities and museums in Helsinki, Bergen, and Aarhus ran community workshops with hobbyist metal detectorists to help protect newly discovered archaeological sites. Because the hobbyists helped shape the approach from the outset rather than simply being studied, the resulting practices were ones they were genuinely invested in using.
3. Translational
Some research cannot leap straight from discovery to widespread use; it needs intermediate stages such as pilots or policy translation. Across England, education settings were given access to a service to produce Climate Action Plans for their institutions. What began as research into climate education became a pilot, then scaled with structured national support. The impact arrived, but only after passing through several deliberate stages of development.
4. Blossom
The most unpredictable pathway is one where research finds uses its creators never anticipated. A machine learning algorithm built in 2015 for medical imaging was published open source; within five years, conservation biologists were using it to identify endangered species from camera-trap footage, art historians were using it to detect forged paintings, and agricultural companies were using it to spot crop disease from drone footage. None of these applications were part of the original research plan, which is exactly what makes open research so valuable. Nobody can predict where an idea will take root.
5. Funnel
Some of the most consequential impact happens when many separate strands of research converge into a single, authoritative output. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a useful example where three working groups and thousands of scientists across disciplines feed into Assessment Reports that inform climate policy worldwide. No single study could carry that weight alone. It is the funnelling of fragmented findings into coherent, actionable guidance that gives the research its influence.
6. Branched
Occasionally, a single piece of fundamental research develops into multiple, unrelated applications across entirely different sectors. CRISPR-Cas9 began as academic research into how bacteria defend themselves against viruses. It has since led to gene therapies for genetic disorders, climate-resilient crops, engineered microbes for sustainable manufacturing, and new strategies for disease control. The CRISPR-Cas9 earned its pioneers the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the first time the prize was awarded jointly to two women. The impact of their discovery is still growing.
“Impact is not a single event. It is a journey, and understanding which path your research is on is the first step to communicating it well.”
For institutions looking to help researchers move from finished study to demonstrated value, our Generating Research Impact programme provides a practical roadmap across all three stages: understanding a project’s visibility, defining what impact means, and preparing to communicate that impact clearly.
The final course, Preparing for Research Impact, guides researchers through mapping their own work onto these six pathways and drafting a narrative impact statement, the kind of evidence-based account that funders, hiring committees, and institutions increasingly expect to see.
We invite you to register your institutional interest in Generating Research Impact, developed in collaboration with Research Consulting, and now open for enrolment.
Support your researchers in communicating the real-world impact of their research.
See details for institutional enrollment.
