PhD and Impact: Why bother?

Bhoomi Gor (@BhoomiKGor) is a Research Impact Officer in Research and Innovation Services at UofG and a former LKAS (Lord Kelvin Adam Smith) PhD student. In this post, she writes about what she gained by engaging in and thinking about research impact, and what you can gain, too.

My interest in research was stimulated at the age of 15, when I was intrigued by a plant that not only survived but thrived in salty soil in which most plants would struggle to survive. This curiosity, together with an enthusiasm for science that was encouraged by my parents and a biology teacher at school, motivated me to study physiological stress mechanisms in organisms first in plants and then, in my PhD, in the kidneys of fruit flies. I worked in labs which carried out fundamental research, where our Principal Investigators always encouraged us to think about how our results might be applicable in and beyond academia.

Sea purslane, scientifically known as Sesuvium portulacastrum can grow in salty soils and can be seen growing in deserts and trailing on coastlines.

Fruit fly, scientifically known as Drosophila melanogaster, is a model organism for biological research.

When I was a PhD researcher, I associated the term ‘research impact’ with the ‘impact’ factor of academic journals (that is, the quality of a journal; for more information read Journal Citation Reports) . Maybe you do this as well? But that is only one definition of impact. In today’s research environment, impact essentially means the contribution that your work could make to the wider society and the economy (for a more comprehensive definition of impact visit the UK Research and Innovation webpage).

Understanding how your research might potentially benefit society can help you explore and formulate its translation and contribution in the wider world (i.e. beyond your cohort and academic conferences). This translation of research is recognised and rewarded by both universities and research funders, and on a personal level it can act as a catalyst to carry out innovative research.

With the limited time available when doing a PhD, when we are learning new methods and new research techniques, collecting and analysing data, writing a thesis and publishing papers, you might wonder how it could be beneficial to think about your potential research impact. Reflecting on my PhD experience, I would like to share five ways in which thinking of your potential research impact can help you as a researcher.

Distilling and defining your research aims

When you start thinking about the societal-economic impacts your research might make, you start looking at how your research fits into the bigger picture. What are the problems, lack of understanding or awareness, inefficiency in process or practice that exist in the society that your research will address? Think about who will be affected by it or benefit from it. This will refine your own understanding of your research and help to distil and define your research aims.

It will also have a knock-on effect of improving your research design, and this I can testify from my own PhD experience. Charting out the potential impacts of my PhD research significantly helped me to design and focus on experiments that would answer key questions in my research. Curiosity in exploring different avenues in your research is encouraged, but PhD is time-controlled, so clarity in research aims will mitigate the risk of being side-tracked. 

Building communication skills

To quote Albert Einstein - “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

As your daily conversations are usually with other researchers in your group, you may tend to use specialised vocabulary or jargon while talking about your research. But when it comes to communicating your research to an educated non-expert audience, there are two key principles: articulate it in clear, engaging and non-specialist language; and adapt it depending on your audience. These are very useful skills to build and hone. It will help you to develop collaborations with people in academia who aren’t in your research area, but also importantly with people in society who may use or benefit from your research.  These skills are greatly valuable when it comes to writing the ‘Introduction’ chapter of your thesis or ‘layman’s’ summary for your paper and Grant/Fellowship applications or answering what can be the first viva question: ‘describe your thesis in layman’s terms’.

A piece of advice I would like to offer, after learning from talking about my own research umpteen times, is to try describing your research in 60 seconds –What it is, how was it done, and why it is important?

Fresh perspectives and motivation

When you start engaging with a non-expert audience about your research, their questions will give you fresh perspectives, which can further improve your research design. Their responses will make you aware of any non-specialist words which may still be considered as jargon and help you pre-empt words that could be potentially misinterpreted. Interacting with an audience who perceive your research in a different light can be a great motivator, especially when you are going through a bumpy phase.

Building Networks

Your confidence will increase when you hone the ability to communicate your research in an effective and concise manner. This in turn will help you to participate in non-research activities such as organising or presenting at conferences where you can interact with an academic audience, or activities where you can engage with other audiences, e.g. presenting your research to policy makers or doing community engagement with your research.

These activities serve as valuable opportunities to meet people who will use your research (whether they are academics or non-academics such as companies, charities, health care workers, museum curators) and build your professional networks. Effectively synthesising your research in a conversation will keep the person you are speaking with engaged. This can lead to unexpected opportunities. For example, that person could be from industry or an NGO looking for a researcher to collaborate with, or a Principal Investigator searching for a new postdoc.

Post-PhD opportunities

After the completion of your PhD, when you are applying for jobs, the professional networks built during your PhD can be hugely advantageous as they can open you up to different opportunities. The experiences and transferable skills which you have gained by doing non-research activities will help your CV to stand out from other applicants. It will also help you to decide your career path whether inside or outside academia. Finally, whether you are facing an interview for a postdoc or a non-academic position, if you have mapped out the potential impacts of your PhD research, you will definitely ace the interview question: ‘tell me about your research’.   

Interested in impact and want a way to get started? One option is to participate in an academic presentation competition: two events currently accepting entrants are Three Minute Thesis (until 21 February 2020) and Famelab (until 28 February 2020).