The Impact Research Group are a cross institutional group of academics interested in exploring the impacts of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education (EEE) in a wide range of contexts.

We grew from an Enterprise Education and Research Project Fund (EERPF) award from Enterprise Educators UK (EEUK) in 2019. The original grant enabled our team of 8 to produce a world-leading review of personal self-assessment tools for EEE competencies, (available via the ETC ToolKit) and an analysis of policy outcomes in the UK.

The EERPF award was central to the development of the group, it allowed us to buy resources and data we otherwise would not have had access to, it gave us legitimacy beyond our institutions, and it positioned us to disseminate our results to an international audience. However, the most important thing that the funding did, and this is arguably one of the least tangible elements, is that it catalysed action – because we had the grant money, we had to deliver on it, and this in turn shaped the group and our values. In fact, it continues to do so almost 2-years later!

Since the completion of the project in 2020 the group has grown and now numbers more than 20 researchers based across the globe who are interested in exploring the impacts of EEE.

Our current projects can be described in 3 broad themes:

1. A qualitative and quantitative exploration of EEE programmes to ascertain how they are designed, presented, and executed;
2. A qualitative and quantitative review of personal self-assessment tools for EEE competencies focused on their design, formulation, and execution; and
3. A quantitative review of UK graduate outcome and excellence framework data to explore what this tells us about the impacts of EEE across the UK.

 

We are active in presenting the groups work at conferences, and have just started to publish in journals, with articles coming out in 2022 and 2023.

If you would like to get involved, we are always happy to welcome new members! We meet once a month during term-time (virtually) to review projects and share news, you do not have to commit to certain number of meetings a year, or take part in any particular project unless you feel able to contribute. Generally, we try to keep things relaxed, inclusive, and relatively informal. You can find more information, including how to contact us on our website or, you can drop Matthew Rogers-Draycott an email.