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Societal impact

Societal impact locally and globally through research, enterprise and skills development that shape the future.

New knowledge is an engine for innovation and societal change. We are proud to contribute to the global pursuit of new knowledge and its translation into practice. Over the next five years we will be especially committed to developing deep expertise in interdisciplinary work to help solve complex societal challenges.

We recognise that research should be high quality so there is confidence in its findings, that it needs to be translated into impacts so that findings are put into practice, and that it should be shared widely and openly to maximise impact and minimise waste. An important way to achieve impact is to work with employers on innovation and the skills of their workforces to apply new knowledge, as well as use our open education channels to engage public groups in critical thinking and calls to action.

Our excellence in research, scholarship and innovation will achieve benefits across society as well as improve teaching, our curriculum and the student experience, sustaining our world leading position in open and supported distance learning and ensuring that our students can learn right to the frontiers of their subjects and professional fields. Many taught undergraduate and postgraduate students undertake research as part of their courses. Our research students have a particularly important part to play in frontier research at the OU.

As a leading provider of university-level skills education, we work with communities, national and local public services, colleges and businesses to ensure that our curriculum and research make a strong contribution to national and local priorities across the four nations, addressing skills gaps, supporting enterprise and entrepreneurship, and improving productivity.

We are committed to providing a research environment that is supportive, inclusive and equitable, facilitates good research practice based on principles of research integrity, and enables communities of researchers to undertake their best work.

Over the next five years we will:

  • use societal challenges and opportunities as a collaborative engine, bringing together teams with diverse skills to tackle challenges, and giving funders confidence that the OU is the best place to invest for societal impact.
  • lead the way in creating an open research culture, supporting public engagement with our research and scholarship, and knowledge exchange with businesses and communities.
  • ensure that our curriculum meets skills needs by working with employers, governments and communities on current and future needs.
  • promote business growth by supporting students and alumni who are, or aspire to be, entrepreneurs.
  • enhance our research infrastructure and support for researchers, making improvements based on business cases that recognise direct and indirect returns from the OU’s own investment, tracking and reviewing performance to ensure the best possible use of this funding, and building external funding to achieve greater scale and quality.
  • build the next generation of research leaders by supporting the success of our postgraduate research students and early career researchers, being proactive to create diverse teams that bring a range of perspectives and experiences to our research culture.