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For boards and research executives
For boards and research executives
Understand how research funding contributes to organisational priorities, public value and longer-term impact.
For research strategy, planning and impact teams
For research strategy, planning and impact teams
Connect organisational strategy, funding design, impact pathways, data and narratives within one coherent system.
For funding program teams
For funding program teams
Establish clearer expectations, make more deliberate program design decisions and focus reporting on information that is useful, feasible and aligned with intended impacts.
Why demonstrating the value and impact of research investment remains difficult
Organisations invest in research through internal or external grants, seed funding, research development awards, strategic initiatives and capability-building schemes.
They are increasingly expected to show not only what was funded, but whether these investments achieved their intended purpose and contributed to organisational priorities, research capability and longer-term impacts.
But research impacts are often long term, indirect and non-linear. They are influenced by many organisations, decisions and external factors. This makes it difficult to attribute change to an individual funding program or organisation.
Addressing this complexity means designing funding programs to contribute to broader change, being realistic about what they can achieve, and building a clear account of their contribution.
Most organisations that fund research already have many of the necessary components in place, such as
organisational strategies
funding guidelines and assessment criteria
reporting requirements
collection of data and metrics
impact case studies.
The difficulty is that these components do not always work together.
The problem is often not a lack of expertise, tools or data.
It is a lack of alignment.
This can lead to:
funding programs that are not clearly connected to organisational priorities
different teams having different expectations about what a program should achieve
reporting requirements that create burden without generating useful insight
data and metrics that are not closely connected to intended impacts
impact narratives that rely on isolated success stories
difficulty bringing evidence together across programs or portfolios.
The Funding to Impact System helps funding teams address these gaps by strengthening and connecting funding purpose, strategy, impact pathways, data and narratives.
What is the Funding to Impact System?
The Funding to Impact System is the connected organisational capability that enables funders to design programs for impact, collect useful data, learn from what they fund and clearly explain their impact.
A Funding to Impact System is effective when its core components are strong and working together. These components are:
1. Purpose: There is a shared understanding of why the funding program exists and what it is intended to enable.
2. Strategic alignment: The funding program’s purpose and intended impacts are connected to the organisation’s mission, vision and/or priorities.
3. Impact pathway: There is a realistic and evidence-informed explanation of how the funding is expected to contribute to change.
4. Data and metrics: Data collection is useful and feasible. Measures reflect the changes the funding program can reasonably be expected to influence.
5. Impact narrative: Evidence can be brought together to explain clearly how the program contributes to change.
Most organisations already have some or all of these components in place. The Funding to Impact System helps ensure they are strong and connected.
When a Funding to Impact System is strong, it becomes easier to design funding for impact, make informed decisions, reduce unnecessary reporting and communicate the value of funding with greater confidence.
Strengthen your funding to impact system while building internal impact capacity
Impact capacity is more than knowing how to talk about impact. It is an organisation’s practical ability to:
make funding-design decisions with impact in mind
develop shared and realistic expectations of what funding programs can achieve
connect funding programs to organisational and research strategy
develop clear pathways to impact; from funding design to desired longer-term impact
select useful and feasible data and metrics
use evidence for learning and future funding decisions
apply a consistent approach to future funding programs.
We build this capacity by working alongside your team on a current funding program or portfolio.
Together, we clarify expectations, make the important decisions, strengthen the necessary tools and processes, and establish a repeatable way of working that your team can continue to apply.
Your organisation is left with both practical outputs and stronger internal capacity: clearer decisions, better-aligned program materials, shared language and greater confidence to design for and demonstrate impact.
Need tailored support?
These options are designed for organisations that fund or invest in research. If your priorities or context require something different, contact us and we can tailor an approach that best meets your needs.
Not sure where to begin?
Start with the Funding to Impact Diagnostic or contact us to arrange a 30 minute discussion to find out the best way we can support you.
Developed by people who understand research funding, impact and evaluation
The Funding to Impact System was developed by Dr Mel Craike and Dr Bo Klepac, founders of Quality for Outcomes.
We have worked across the research funding system as researchers, grant applicants and recipients, grant reviewers, advisors, evaluators and impact specialists.
We understand the pressure organisations face to demonstrate the value of their research investment. Executives, governing bodies, governments, donors, partners and communities increasingly want clearer evidence of what research funding enables, while funding teams often work with fragmented systems, limited resources and competing reporting demands.
Our experience within universities and across the research funding system gives us insight into both sides of the process: how funding is designed and assessed, and how researchers experience and respond to funding requirements
Our approach helps organisations that fund and invest in research bring strategy, funding design, data and narratives together to build their capability to design for and demonstrate impact and make smart funding decisions.
Choose the level of support your organisation needs
You do not need to rebuild your entire funding approach at once.
We offer different levels of support depending on where your funding to impact system needs strengthening, the scale of the challenge and the internal capacity available to address it.
➡️Funding to Impact Diagnostic: Find out where your Funding to Impact System needs strengthening.
Our free Funding to Impact Diagnostic Tool helps you identify the first point at which your funding to impact system may need attention and where targeted capacity building or improvement might be most valuable.
It is not a score, audit or test. It is a practical starting point for deciding where to focus first.
In 3–5 minutes, you will receive a personalised result showing:
Your likely starting point
An explanation of what the result means
Why the issue matters
Practical next steps.
Best suited when: you are uncertain where to begin or want to identify where targeted capacity building may be most valuable.
Take the Diagnostic
➡️Funding to Impact Sprint™: Resolve one priority issue for one funding program.
The Funding to Impact Sprint is designed to address one priority issue for one funding program. It helps your team make key decisions, identify practical improvements and establish a focused 90-day roadmap.
Best suited when: one part of your Funding to Impact System needs attention and your organisation has the capacity to implement the agreed next steps.
Explore the Funding to Impact Sprint
➡️Funding to Impact Program Build™: Build a coherent Funding to Impact System for one funding program.
The Program Build strengthens and aligns all components for one funding program.
Best suited when: several components are disconnected, key stakeholders do not share a consistent understanding of the program, or your organisation needs a working model that can later be adapted across other programs.
Explore the Funding to Impact Program Build
➡️Funding to Impact Portfolio Build™: Understand and communicate the contribution of your funding portfolio.
Best suited when: your organisation already has program level impact systems in place and wants to demonstrate the collective impact of its funding portfolio. It connects funding programs to shared strategic priorities, identifies impact themes, portfolio level data and metrics and reporting so you can explain the overall impact of the funding portfolio.
Explore the Funding to Impact Portfolio Build.
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