The impact agenda in four acts – or, how impact moved from concept to governing principle

The term ‘impact’ has become so familiar that it is easy to forget how much effort was invested in embedding it in British academia. Marta Natalia Wróblewska takes a look at the emergence of the discourse of impact in the UK and its transformation from idea to defining feature of academic life. As other countries seek to transfer the UK’s impact policy framework into their own national contexts, she argues that policymakers would be well minded to consider the highly contingent way the impact agenda developed in the UK.