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Over the last three decades, there has been a growing interest and debate in the definition and measurement of research impact. The impact of research can be viewed in terms of ‘academic’ impact, and that which is ‘beyond scholarly’: impact understood as benefits to individuals, communities, and societies.

Considering and understanding the impact of research in those areas beyond academic is both complex and challenging; not only can it take years in some cases to understand the impact, but impacts can be distal, unquantifiable, and cumulative.

At OISE, we define research impact as the overall influence of research created within society that has a impact in quality of life across all and any sectors (i.e., education, health, economics) from an individual to global level. Researchers and professionals are investigating how society actually benefits from research, and how to track this benefit.

Our team has explored established frameworks of research impact and applied them to develop a novel research impact framework, Research Impact through Strategic Engagement (RISE).

Researchers within and beyond OISE can use RISE to identify, monitor, and promote the ‘beyond scholarly’ impact of their research. This framework highlights areas within the research process to achieve and understand meaningful impact.

RISE is a novel framework that critically appraises research impact at three interrelated stages - research outputs, knowledge mobilization activities, and monitoring/tracking of impact – that are interrelated, and collectively work towards research impact. As the RISE framework transitions from conceptualization to operationalization, we have created a RISE toolkit to assist researchers in reflecting on how the framework applies to their own work.

We welcome all comments and feedback on the RISE Toolkit – please email oise.research@utoronto.ca. Please also contact us if you require a copy of the Toolkit in another format.