How NCRM provides evidence of its impact

NCRM has delivered more than 20 years of high-quality training and capacity building (TCB) activities, and research.

Our current phase of funding

During the period 2020-2025, NCRM has been funded by the ESRC to be a unique provider of TCB activities and resources. For our definition of impact, and the type of impacts that we generate, see our impact strategy page.

NCRM has been collecting and collating different types of evidence on the impact of our TCB provision for this current phase of ESRC funding. In January 2025, we published our Impact Assessment Report, which describes the various impacts we have generated since 2020.

NCRM sources of impact evidence

Our sources of impact evidence include:

Registration data and completed evaluation forms – registration data provides us with anonymised data, telling us how many people have attended our courses, and the sectors in which they work, volunteer or study. Our evaluation forms tell us what participants think of our training, and how useful it has been.
Two user impact surveys - these tell us how people have gone on to use our training.
70 written impact case studies - these provide narratives on how our beneficiaries have gone on to generate additional impacts through their involvement with NCRM. (These include case studies written in 2022, and impact prize submissions written in 2023 and 2024.)
Online feedback on resources, courses and events – this consists of publicly available digital posts by people commenting on our training, events and resources. This allows us to monitor how popular courses, events and resources are.
Testimonial interviews and focus groups with internal and external stakeholders – these provide us with insights on the role that NCRM has had in generating impacts; stakeholders’ perceptions on the role of NCRM within the research methods and skills training landscape; and NCRM’s unique contributions to different methodological areas.
Written impact reports from bursary holders, Innovation Fora and TCB event organisers – these tell us about the difference that NCRM is making to our bursary holders, innovators and trainers.
Written pedagogical reflections from trainers – these enable our trainers to reflect on their pedagogical practice (it also offers them the opportunity to make connections with other trainers through our pedagogy network, and through our ‘Teatime for trainers’ events) and tell us about pedagogical lessons learnt.
Short impact videos produced with stakeholders (delivery planned for 2025) – these will showcase the careers of some of those who have been involved with NCRM over the last 20 years. (As well as showcasing impact generated through methods training, we hope these will inspire new up and coming researchers from across different sectors and disciplines).