New ‘playbook’ aims to help universities amplify their societal impact

Universities strive to deliver research findings that are not only sound and replicable but make a meaningful contribution to society — and the need to demonstrate that impact is more important than ever.

This increased emphasis comes from governments, funding bodies and even taxpayers, who all want evidence that the research and teaching contributions of universities are advancing areas of societal importance such as health, the environment and the economy.

However, any kind of societal impact is notoriously difficult to achieve at scale, challenging to define, and hard to measure. It can also take decades to achieve. Various attempts have been made to track universities’ wider contributions; for example, in 2019, Times Higher Education launched its Impact Rankings(opens in new tab/window) (to which Elsevier contributes data). But many of these initiatives look to traditional indicators, the majority of which are linked to research activities rather than outcomes. In addition, they focus on attempts to measure past impact.

In a bid to address these challenges, UTAS joined forces with Elsevier’s International Center for the Study of Research (ICSR) to explore options for a more evidence-based process. As Prof Adams explains: “Putting impact at the center of thinking means putting impact at the center of decision-making.”

The TSIM: a structured and adaptable model

The TSIM is a structured 5-step process depicted in the diagram above. The playbook describes each of the steps in detail over the course of five chapters. The term “playbook” was chosen because universities can either follow the five steps in sequence or view them as building blocks they can “play” with to maximize impact and look to measure and attribute plausible explanations of impact. The chapters also contain lessons learned from UTAS’s own use of the model over the past two years.

The collaboration team believes the key hallmarks of the TSIM’s novel approach include its focus on:

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  Future societal impact (rather than past contributions)

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  Outcome-focused indicators (including using data from Elsevier’s Scopus, SciVal and PlumX Metrics(opens in new tab/window))

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  Evidence-based impact pathways to guide implementation

Dr McGuire explains: “The TSIM is less about trying to specify individual contributions (although these are also important) and more about everyone pulling in the same direction to increase impact. We believe partnerships and the community are central to impact, so the model involves them early in the planning process. And the TSIM is not about ‘set and forget’; instead, it is a continual monitoring and prioritizing process that fluxes depending on the changing societal landscape.”

She adds: “Ultimately, the TSIM is about planning for impact. And it encourages institutions to leverage the professional services they already have in place: for example, research support staff, business development managers and marketing staff, as well as influential external contacts and alumni.”

Place-based strategies for maximum societal impact

According to Prof Adams, one of the unique qualities of the TSIM is its place-based approach — this means thinking not only about how the institution contributes to the community around it but about how the location or community can support the university’s work. For example, in the case of UTAS, its Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)(opens in new tab/window) uses its “place” advantage to undertake Antarctic and marine research that provides valuable input for global policies.

UTAS was a natural partner for Elsevier on this project. The university not only has a strong record in demonstrating societal impact — the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings rated UTAS the number one university in the world on climate action in 2022 and 2023 — it also prides itself on its creative thinking and problem solving.