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Hello everyone,

This is my final newsletter for 2025 - and what a year it's been!

 

I'm excited to announce that the third edition of The Research Impact Handbook is now available. To mark the launch, I am hosting a free online workshop in January, featuring leading voices in the global impact field. Please join the discussion!

 

Wishing you a restorative festive season break, and looking forward to sharing more research impact news in the new year.

 

Enjoy!

News from Fast Track Impact

FEATURED EVENT

The third edition of The Research Impact Handbook is now available! To mark this milestone, I'm hosting a free workshop with foundational and disruptive figures in the global impact field to reflect on the future of the impact agenda, including Steven Hill, Emanuela Reale, Gemma Derrick and Annette Boaz, chaired by Eric Jensen. Workshop attendees are invited to contribute to an agenda-setting co-authored paper in Research Evaluation.  Sign up on Eventbrite to join us on Thursday, 22 January 2026, from 2 to 3 pm (GMT). 

 

You can get 25% off the third edition (until 2 December), so make sure to get your copy today. 

 

FEATURED BLOG POST

I’ve been included in Clarivate’s 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list, which recognises authors with work ranked in the top 1% of citations over the past 11 years. It is encouraging to see long-term research on impact and evidence use gaining attention, yet this also highlights how uneven global metrics can be and how much they reflect structural conditions as much as individual effort. My reflections are outlined in my latest blog post: Advancing rigorous, fair and high-impact research practice.

 

FEATURED COURSES

Impact depends on reaching the right people. In our live online Inclusive Stakeholder Analysis training workshop, we show you how to identify, prioritise and engage with the stakeholders most critical to your research, based on their interests, influence, and impact. You can book a session here.

 

FEATURED PODCAST

I recently spoke to Bernard Lecuivre on the Almendra Podcast. The episode focuses on the Ethics of Impact and doing good, with care. The conversation is about political influence under time pressure, about scalable strategies without losing substance, and about the power of intrinsic motivation.

Check out our growing catalogue of courses here (worth checking out the new ones if you haven't looked for a while!) and get in touch to set up a call to discuss your needs. 

Research impact news

  • I found this new book, How to succeed in collaborative research by Sawsan Khuri, really useful. I have led many interdisciplinary, challenge-led research teams and recognise many of the critical lessons I've learned over the years in this book.
  • Li, Zong and colleagues provide more evidence that review articles are used more widely than original research articles to inform policy, and yet so the academic incentives are for original research.
  • A new interactive impact evaluation tool by the Society for Conservation Biology helps you choose the best method based on the context of your research, including types of data produced, timescales and project scales. This is based on counterfactual-based impact evaluation methods for assessing the impact of conservation projects, but could be relevant to many types of projects seeking to evaluate their impact.
  • Join a free workshop on Tuesday, 2 December 2025, from 3-5pm (CET) on co-creation approaches in research, run by the EU-funded REINFORCING Project.
  • Eric Jensen’s social research methods textbook, Doing Research in the Real World (6th Ed.), is now available. It offers a clear, practice-based introduction to designing and conducting robust research across disciplines. A free preview is available for anyone interested in updating their teaching materials or refining methodological skills.

    I hope you've found something useful in this newsletter. If you think others would benefit from future emails, they can subscribe here.

     

    I'll be in touch again next month with another newsletter edition.

     

    Take care till then,

    Mark

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    www.fasttrackimpact.com

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