Showcasing health psychology research: How do we get impact and why does it matter?

The objective of this paper is to help DHP members to develop and produce high impact health psychology research. We do this by considering the meaning of impact in terms of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and in practical terms of what kinds of activities we can undertake as researchers to fulfil the requirements of impact and to make a difference through our research in the real world. We present two examples: one is from a case study submitted to REF 2014; the second is a work in progress. These help demonstrate the pathway to impact from research through to evidenced impactful outputs. We call to members to get involved with our impact agenda within the DHP by informing us of ideas to help develop this work and by submitting examples of impact to the BPS Impact Portal which has been designed to demonstrate to the public the impact of psychological research.