Ten steps to make your research more relevant

A researcher might face a number of questions (s)he was not necessarily trained to address, such as:

• How can I be sure that my research question will provide knowledge relevant for society?
• Who in this fuzzy thing called society are my primary target audiences anyway?
• Are some of them more important for my project than others?

Over the last several years, we developed 10 steps to provide a structured way of thinking through how to improve the societal relevance of a research project, as summarised in the table below.

When working with researchers to plan their impact, we usually go through the 10 steps in a workshop format, as follows:

• Before each step we provide a brief account of the underlying theory and clarify why the step matters.
• Then we ask the researchers to complete a concrete task, reflecting on their own project
• Researchers usually also discuss their reflections with each other and learn about different approaches to address societal relevance.
• They also discuss the tasks with us, but we are not necessarily the ones who know the right answers.

The ten steps work best in a context where a research project leader, for example, provides detailed project knowledge and the whole group is interested in discussing the societal impact of research.

In our experience, the ten steps trigger reflection on one’s own research and allow for fruitful coproduction of knowledge in the project team on how to improve the societal relevance of projects.

What techniques have you used to plan, and reflect on, making your research socially relevant?