Research Impact

Page banner – courtesy of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research

Measuring the impact of research is something that all medical research institutes aim to do.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) defines Research Impact as:

…the verifiable outcomes that research makes to knowledge, health, the economy and/or society. Impact is the effect of the research after it has been adopted, adapted for use, or used to inform further research.

sourced from the NHMRC Research Impact Position Statement – 2022

Impact can be assessed and reported in many ways, from traditional number-based metrics through to translational case studies. All of these forms of assessment are important and help institutes to demonstrate how their research makes a difference.

In 2021, the AAMRI Research Impact Framework was published, which established a universal language to communicate how research work contributes to knowledge, society, health and the economy.

Past AAMRI President Professor Jonathan Carapetis introduces the AAMRI Research Impact Project

The use of this framework will enhance the ability of medical research institutes to identify and demonstrate how their research is making an impact, maximising the return on investment made by government, industry and philanthropic funders.

What we’re doing

Through the established AAMRI Research Impact Committee, we are looking to steer a best practice culture of encouraging and assessing research impact across the medical research sector. This includes highlighting research impact successes and building a sustainable network of resources to support rollout.

Some of the key priorities include:

  • assisting AAMRI with its own impact planning and reporting
  • improving the estimation and measurement of impact
  • researching and developing case studies on usage of impact reporting.