Training Spotlight: What Is Research Impact? And How Do We Measure It?
Highlights from Saath’s Training Workshop for University of Waterloo’s Research Team
Saath Partners had the pleasure of facilitating a virtual workshop with the brilliant research team at the University of Waterloo. This group included faculty, graduate students, and research staff supporting applied research projects focused on real-world change.
In our one-hour training, we focused on concepts like knowledge mobilization, academic-practice partnerships, and research co-creation. We introduced the Research-to-Impact Value Chain as a guiding framework—one that helps teams map where impact happens, identify key leverage points, and plan for measurement from the start. There was an discussion on how to meaningfully measure the societal impact of research through the lens of research quality and research utilization.
Participants Defined Research Impact in a Few Words:
Participants walked away with renewed clarity and actionable ideas. One shared, “It was the first time I’ve seen MEL taught through a partnership lens.” Another reflected that the session helped shift their mindset from “reporting outcomes” to “building relationships that drive outcomes.”
“One key takeaway for me from the knowledge mobilization perspective was their emphasis on making research impact more user-centric. The examples shared with indicators like open-access publishing, stakeholder feedback, and social/web engagement metrics gave me some ideas on how we might better quantify and communicate the impact of evidence in our work. It was a great reminder that it’s not just about sharing knowledge, but ensuring it’s accessible, relevant, and meaningfully used.”
A big thank you to Dr. Amelia Clark and her research team at University of Waterloo for creating space for this conversation and for your commitment to doing research that matters.
At Saath Partners, in addition to our services of Strategy & Roadmapping and Design & Facilitation, we offer Training & Development to help leaders and teams build the skills, mindsets, and tools needed to navigate complexity and collaborate across boundaries. Our trainings are tailored to the needs of your institution and are grounded in systems thinking and effective partnership practices.
We offer trainings like this to help institutions:
· Build capacity for applied, partnership-driven research
· Navigate the complexity of measuring research use and impact
· Equip teams with tools to plan, evaluate, and communicate real-world outcomes
If your center, program or lab is asking: how do we know our research is making a difference? We’d love to support you.
Let’s start a conversation: Contact us at info@saathpartners.com