In partnership with Associate and Impact specialist Lesley Patterson, Flow co-delivers a Research Impact Fellowship Scheme for Kings College London’s Arts and Humanities Department, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Initially commissioned to deliver two years of the scheme in 2023 and 2024, our contract was extended to include a third cohort in 2025 which is about to begin, and we are exploring future options once the AHRC funding runs out.

Each year 8 to 10 researchers are selected to take part in the scheme, from subjects across Kings Humanities Departments. The Fellows range in their experience of delivering Research Impact projects, so the scheme is flexible with a mix of 1-2-1 and group activities delivered both online and in-person.  The Fellows are asked to suggest a current research project that they are either working on or looking to get funded, and we support them to identify their potential for impact beyond academia, conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify who their beneficiaries and partners are, develop a Theory of Change and Logic Model to identify their pathway towards impact, and an Evaluation Planning template so that they are better able to evidence success.

We also offer the Fellows a flexible option for tailored support, which has ranged from Action Learning Sets to 1-2-1 mentoring and a literature review looking at 4-star Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case studies.

We conduct a light-touch evaluation of the scheme to ensure we are listening to the needs of the fellows and have seen a consistent rise in their self-reported confidence, knowledge and experience. As part of this we facilitate a reflection and celebration event for the fellows at the end of the scheme. Several commented how they had a better understanding of impact and how to apply it. They appreciated the practical focus of the sessions and how they were able to apply it to their own work, and that it was not purely focused on the REF requirements. They could also articulate how they would be able to use this knowledge in future. In addition to building knowledge, skills and capacity, past Fellows have already put their learning into practice in terms of tangible actions taken, and/or have firm plans in place to further their impact aspirations and ideas, in particular with respect to developing new grant applications, evaluation, and making plans for their potential REF contributions.