Five ways to increase research impact
Research is research. It is full of risks and unexpected failures. In the life sciences, research is plagued by the fact that it takes more than 17 years to go from research finding to clinical impact. Yet, you are not doomed to a fate of high-risk research with little hope of meaningful impact.
Let’s just define impact as a meaningful change for the better. So, a new effective therapy is perhaps the clearest example of impact. However, the discovery of a new mechanism for a disease is a long way off from a physician being able to prescribe a medicine based on that mechanism. It may seem that there is not much you can do to increase research impact.
Having spent the last 17 years working on more than 60 consortium projects, I have seen many ways to increase research impact. Here are five ways of increasing research impact that create a compounding effect:
Create a registry:
Real-world data can be very powerful, especially for disease foundations focused on patient stakeholder value. It’s not just that a registry collects a large amount of data in a real-world setting. It’s the type of data that is collected. Registries have the potential to provide true-to-life insights on the practical implementation of care. A registry is more than a collection of data; it is a network that can be surveyed.
Bring researchers and initiatives together:
There is a lot of opportunity to make stepwise change when researchers and different initiatives are brought together. Collective intelligence is a real phenomenon with well-grounded evidence that it works. Consortium projects are great for creating 1+1=3 situations. Convening consortia is a great role for disease foundations and researcher leaders.
Deploy knowledge frameworks:
When it comes down to it, research is about the generation of new knowledge. This is what publishing paper is all about. However, the knowledge in a series of papers is not connected or understandable in a broader context. Getting researchers to structure the knowledge they are generating makes it many times more useful. Frameworks such as Adverse Outcome Pathways, disease maps, and atlases make that knowledge more useful in the shorter term.
Make data re-usable:
All too often, data is collected without the use of a standard, a data dictionary, or without a proper database. This limits the reusability of a dataset. The more a dataset is used, the more impact of a given piece of research achieves. Insisting that data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable is one way to increase impact. The U-BIOPRED project created one of the largest FAIR datasets for severe asthma. Nine years after the end of the project, the data is still being used. When you search “U-BIOPRED” on Google Scholar, you find more than 500 papers that mention U-BIOPRED. Without the work to curate and house the data in an accessible database, the impact of that data would be many times less.
Convene a critical mass of stakeholders:
This is probably the most important of all the ways to increase impact. The life sciences is a multi-stakeholder effort, and to make a change, have an impact, a critical mass of stakeholders needs to be aligned. The problem is at the size of the group of stakeholders you need; the resulting community is large and unwieldy. The solution is to look to network theory. The best way to organize a large group of people is in a hub and spoke structure. Small groups work on their own to come up with new innovations and then bring those back to everyone else in the hub. This is how the Strive project in the US made progress (1) in improving public education, which was a most challenging task because there are too many charities working on the problem, each promoting their own solution. One of the key elements of their work was to have a common agenda, or strategic goals. Another element was having a backbone organization.
Why clarifying research impact matters.
All of these ways to increase research impact are about amplifying the results of a research project. They are also about connecting different research initiatives leading to a wider array of follow-on projects. As I pointed out in the previous edition of this newsletter, the perception of the value of research is important. The same could be said to be true for impact. The more stakeholders who are aware of the impact of your research, the more chance they will be inspired by your research and become part of that critical mass needed to make a change.
It is therefore important to invest some effort in clarifying the impact of your research. Impact is a great topic to engage diverse stakeholders, and it is the point where diverse interests converge. Clarifying the impact of your research with a group of stakeholders is also a great way to determine how to communicate about impact.
It is best to find a way to link your research to all the subsequent impact it will have. Truly impactful research will spawn a whole host of subsequent research. By defining the knowledge gained from a research result, you can track the growing impact over time. This can result in a continuous awareness campaign so that your efforts to amplify impact are recognized and acknowledged by stakeholders.
Would easier fundraising benefit you and your organization?
Whether you are a disease foundation or a life sciences researcher at BioSci Consulting, we can help you improve your fundraising by increasing the impact of the research you support or the research you do. We provide strategic advice on research impact and help you design strategic plans, consortium projects, communities, and ecosystems in collaboration with your stakeholders. Schedule a no cost, no obligation call for some advice on how to increase the impact of your research. Find a time here.
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Kania, J., & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective Impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9(1), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.48558/5900-KN19
