4 Engagement and Impact Assessment (EI) This section provides an overview of the EI assessment, its history and development and analysis of issues raised previously in feedback from stakeholders. The section includes questions relating to EI policy, methodology and process.
For further information about EI, please visit the EI homepage on the ARC website.
4.1 EI overview
EI is a national assessment framework that assesses how researchers engage with the users of their research, and how they translate their research into impacts, beyond academia. In doing so, EI aims to encourage greater collaboration between universities and research end- users, such as industry.
The specific objectives of the EI assessment are to:
• provide clarity to the Government and the Australian public about how their investments in university research translate into tangible benefits beyond academia
• identify institutional processes and infrastructure that enable research engagement
• promote greater support for the translation of research impact within institutions for the benefit of Australia beyond academia
• identify the ways in which institutions currently translate research into impact.
The Australian Government first announced the development of an engagement and impact assessment in December 2015, as part of its National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA). EI was developed through consultations with universities, stakeholders and experts and through a Pilot conducted in 2017 15 . The first full round followed in 2018. EI uses expert review of quantitative and qualitative measures of research engagement and, qualitative measures of research impact and approach to impact at the broad discipline level. Further details of the EI methodology are outlined in Section 4.3. Results and key findings from the EI 2018 assessment were released in March 2019 in the EI 2018 National Report. Over 200 impact studies and 170 engagement narratives that received a high rating were also published as examples of best practice. 16
15 Further information about the EI Pilot and its findings, is available on the ARC website. 16 ARC, ARC Data Portal .
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