Being accountable on the impact of practice-based research

This paper is about a practical method for Universities of Applied Sciences to account for the impact of their research. The 36 Universities of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands are contributing to global challenges and pressing social issues through practice-based research. The research questions of practice-based research are derived from societal issues and the knowledge produced is intended to be of direct benefit to practice (Andriessen, 2014).

Given the claim of practice-based research to develop concrete advantages and contributions to solve complex problems Universities of Applied Sciences have a strong responsibility to account for the impact of their research and to show that the public money invested in its research (about 189 million Euros1) is well spend. This paper shows that none of the existing methods for assessing the impact of research are suitable for the practice-based research conducted at Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences. It offers an alternative approach based on narratives supported by empirical evidence.