Social Impact Measurement in Research: Deconstructing and Co-Designing Meaningful Metrics with Stakeholders

As universities and stakeholders increasingly work together in participatory research, defining and capturing the social value of these interventions remains a challenge. Traditional metrics often fail to account for the complexity and long-term nature of social impact, leading to underrepresentation of these contributions in resource allocation decisions. This session explores a framework for measuring the social impact of research, addressing the co-design of KPIs with stakeholders, and recognising the importance of understanding the social structures and communities that research aims to impact. Once stakeholders are identified and included, the participants agree on the desired change and the visible evidence of that change. This process informs the co-design of metrics, which are then subjected to four essential principles: purpose, contextuality, causality, and robustness and transparency. These principles ensure that the metrics are not only meaningful but also aligned with the goals and context of the research.

This method fosters engagement from all stakeholders, ensures a shared understanding of project objectives, and allows for the continuous tracking of milestones, encouraging long-term partnerships and a culture of improvement. This approach is most valuable when existing KPIs and measurement tools are insufficient, when stakeholder involvement is essential, and when social value is a key outcome. The paper will present the learnings of a study case implementing this framework in a real university-partnership setting within a British university and their KPIs agreement with policy makers, academic, support teams, business and beneficiaries.