Our Vision

Our vision is of an impact literate sector characterised by healthy institutional impact practice. An ecosystem within which researchers, research managers, knowledge brokers and non-academics have the opportunity and support to develop collective critical understanding of how research can help society. At the heart of our approach is the appetite to enhance institutional culture, allowing more effective approaches to impact, and in turn optimising benefits to communities, organisations and people. By connecting better both within and beyond our institutions, we can harness our collective knowledge and expertise and make real differences in society. Impact needs balanced and equal partnerships between the academia and the broader social world; rooting our engagement and co-production on impact literacy gives us the best chance to make a difference.

Our Mission

Our Mission is simple. Promote purposeful research whilst driving critical understanding of how research leads to impact.

Our Values

We believe that universities have an incredible opportunity to help society. The University of Lincoln prides itself on being a Civic University, working in partnership with, and contributing to the economy, social fabric and cultural offer of our region. To us, the university is key part of a wider ecosystem, a connected community, where our combined efforts help to address the challenges that surround us. Our 21st Century Lab opens up thinking about the role higher education should play in responding to the extensive changes we see across the world in our economies, societies, nations, and cultures, and our core strategic research commitment is to conduct purposeful research.

We also believe that we need to fundamentally rethink how universities operate to adapt and respond to challenges in a rapidly changing social, political and economical landscape. Lincoln’s pioneering manifesto ‘The Permeable University’ calls for higher education to embrace more fluid relationships with society to remove barriers to interaction within and beyond the institution. Permeability is the new lens which should reframe the purpose of universities in the 21st Century. LILI is a further demonstration of these University of Lincoln values. Impact is, by definition, a connection between academia and society, but in a sector so often dominated by assessment (eg. REF, KEF) and reputation, it can be easy to lose sight of what matters to people. Developing a critical understanding of impact – or impact literacy – can help us drive stronger, more meaningful and more connected benefits for everyone.

We believe impact literacy should be the new lens which reframes our approaches to impact within the sector, and as one of the foundations upon which the concept of permeable University rests.