Impact at ISGlobal

At ISGlobal, translating knowledge into action for the benefit of society has always been central to our mission. But how we understand, plan, track and document the impact of our research has become increasingly important for funding and evaluation reasons.

The impact area seeks to foster an institutional environment that drives the impact of its many research—and other—activities. It also seeks to help researchers develop robust impact pathways for ongoing and future research projects, and identify, prove and communicate the impact of past research.

Impact Equals Change

We understand impact as the provable benefits of research in society. In other words, the positive changes that occur as a result of our research and beyond academia.

These changes can be instrumental (changing something), in capacity (our ability to do something) or conceptual (how we think about something).

Depending on who benefits from these changes and how, the impacts can be societal (including cultural, educational and health impacts), economic or environmental.

Not All Our Research Has The Same Pathway to Impact

Our ultimate goal at ISGlobal is to improve the health of everyone, everywhere. This is very ambitious, and not all of the research we do at ISGlobal has the same pathway and timings to achieve this.

Impact is a journey with many stops along the way. For instance, our research might contribute to a change in health policy, but that is only the first step. The full impact, such as reducing deaths or disease and creating economic benefits, may only become evident years later.