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Impact case studies and examples of impact

NCRM has collected more than 70 impact case studies that demonstrate how our activities make a difference. The case studies have been provided by researchers who have participated in our training and other activities, whether as learners, trainers or collaborators.

Reported impact ranges from improving the skills of individual researchers to enabling research that has benefits for wider society. Our beneficiaries have described our impact through written case studies, applications to two impact surveys, more than 50 submissions to the NCRM Impact Prize and online feedback.

A selection of our impact case studies and examples of our impact are available to read below. You can also read further feedback in our Impact Assessment Report 2020-2025.


Helping researchers to shape their methodology

  • Naureen Meghani, a PhD researcher at Swansea University, and her supervisor Professor Joanne Hudson, used skills and knowledge they gained from NCRM courses and events to help develop a health intervention for older adults. In a feasibility study, Naureen found that the new intervention helped participants to minimise their sedentary behaviour through the use of wearable activity sensors. Read a summary of Naureen's impact prize entry.
  • Selena Saligari, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Liverpool, was able to continue planning her PhD research project and building her methodological knowledge thanks to NCRM’s Changing Research Practices project. By providing guidance materials, peer support and webinars, the project help Selena and other researchers to adapt their methods, stay motivated and continue their work through the global crisis. Read Selena's impact case study.
  • Researchers involved in NCRM’s Changing Research Practices project, adapted their methods and shared knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a case study, the organisers of the project describe how it enabled researchers to continue working and developing their methods during the crisis. Read the team's impact case study.

Improving researchers’ skills

In a survey of researchers who had attended NCRM courses and events since January 2020, 94 per cent of respondents said that they had applied their new or improved skills. Below are some examples of how attendees on our courses have gained new skills and applied them to research.

  • PhD researcher Tess Hartland used techniques learnt on an NCRM narrative interpretative method workshop to conduct research on the experiences of older refugees and asylum seekers. As described in her application for the NCRM Impact Prize, she used ideas discussed on an NCRM creative methods podcast to help her create a comic book on the findings. Read Tess's impact prize entry.
  • Dr Kara Brisson-Boivin, Director of Research for Media Smarts, a not-for-profit organisation in Canada, reported that she planned to use insights gained on a creative methods training course to help with data analysis of mixed-methods research and with producing reports for funders in the government sector. In a case study, she explained her team now planned to include creative methods in new research proposals and funding bids. Read Kara's impact case study.
  • Independent researcher Dr Helen Kara has helped to raise standards in research ethics by running training courses, developing a new ethics framework with the European Union and publishing a book. She developed some of her core ideas on ethics after attending training run by NCRM, which then commissioned her to run courses and create online learning materials. Read Helen's impact case study.
  • Priyanka Shrestha learnt new skills in co-production methods and community research on an NCRM course. She became an advocate for methods that involve community members and encourages others to employ such approaches in their work.Read Priyanka's impact case study.

Developing new methods

  • Dr Jose Pina-Sánchez, of the University of Leeds, and his team collaborated with the Sentencing Council for England and Wales to ensure the accuracy of its sentencing guidelines by developing a new index of sentencing severity, which was adopted by the council in 2029. The team applied skills in statistical analysis that they learnt on NCRM training courses, and their work was supported by NCRM funding. Read Jose’s case study.
  • Dr Leon Moosavi, of the University of Liverpool, helped to further understanding of decolonial research methods by running a series of webinars funded by NCRM’s Innovation Fora programme. The events, which featured presentations from leading scholars, were attended by thousands of people. Recordings of the webinars have received more than 24,000 views. Read Leon’s impact prize entry.
  • Professor Jane Hurst and her team from the University of Oxford, helped to shape the direction of research into gestational diabetes mellitus by organising an interdisciplinary forum on machine learning and clinical data. Funded by NCRM’s Innovation Fora programme, the project prompted the exploration of new interventions and is set to have future impacts on patient care. Read the team’s impact prize entry.
  • Dr Susie Weller, Dr Emma Davidson, Professor Ros Edwards and Professor Lynn Jamieson, pioneered the breadth-and-depth method for analysing large volumes of qualitative data. By combining computational text analysis with conventional qualitative methods, it enables qualitative researchers to ask new questions and discover new insights from existing data. Read a summary of the team’s impact prize entry.

Boosting career development

  • Independent researcher Dr Helen Kara has built a career as a trainer and international expert in creative methods and research ethics. NCRM supported Dr Kara’s professional development in various ways, in particular through employment as a trainer on numerous courses. Read a summary of Helen's impact prize entry.
  • Dr Kim Ozano, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, gained new teaching opportunities and boosted her teaching skills after delivering training for NCRM. The training, on participatory action research, also provided teaching opportunities for early-career researchers. Read Kim's case study.

Supporting research with wider societal impact

  • Lucía Guerrero Rivière, a PhD researcher at the University of Exeter, helped survivors of police violence to articulate their demands for justice through filmmaking. The researcher applied skills she learnt on an NCRM filmmaking course to a research project in Colombia, enabling her participants to tell their stories. Read Lucía’s impact prize entry.
  • Members of the Austerity and Altered Life-Courses project at The University of Manchester and Inspire Women Oldham worked on an initiative that improved the skills of non-academic collaborators. The partners used funding from NCRM’s Innovation Fora programme to run a workshop series on co-production methods. Both participants and collaborators learnt new skills and, following the series, the partners were invited to run further events for organisations in various sectors. Read the team’s impact prize entry.

Bringing research findings to a wider audience

  • Dr Nicola Simpson, of Norwich University of the Arts, used a poetry game to exhibit co-produced data gathered from an arts-based project involving mental health service users. She created the game after attending creative methods training run by NCRM, which gave her the skills, ideas and confidence to explore creative approaches to both research design and dissemination. Read Nicola’s impact prize entry.

If you would like more details about any of our impact case studies, please email: impact@ncrm.ac.uk.