Aligning for Impact is a global funder collaboration aimed at significantly increasing the value of research worldwide through more effective, strategic investing.
What problem is Aligning for Impact solving?
Every year, philanthropic and public funders invest billions of dollars in scientific research. Decades of work have shown how to measure the impact of these investments. But the resulting knowledge is not being used widely or consistently.
At a critical moment for the global scientific enterprise, funders and their partners must collectively elevate research impact as a priority. Without evidence that research improves lives, there is no case for continued investment. More importantly, it is difficult to make strategic decisions about what to fund and how, for maximum societal and economic benefit.
How will Aligning for Impact address this problem?
Aligning for Impact unites funders and research system champions to leverage the substantial efforts underway in research impact assessment. Together, they plan to promote the widespread adoption of tools, standards, processes, infrastructure, and partnerships that enable strategic and transformative research investments.
Initial work with funders confirmed that evidence from research impact assessment is not used consistently to guide research investments or to demonstrate the value of research to decision-makers and the public.
Building on these findings, Aligning for Impact is advancing a set of collaborative projects and engagement activities across the research system. These include:
- Research impact taxonomy, which is a comprehensive synthesis of how funders and their partners can define, categorize, and measure research impact consistently, across different contexts and geographies.
- Retrospective and prospective studies of impact to determine more effective funding and support strategies, leading to co-investment in shared solutions across funders internationally.
- Decision-support tools that help funders and research system decision-makers use research impact assessments to determine what to invest in and how.
- An impact lab where funders from around the globe can compare strategies, run pilot projects, and foster greater alignment and adoption of impact assessment best practices.
- An engagement plan to leverage, learn from, and support related work underway around the world, helping influence the system-level conditions needed for successful research impact assessment.
Who’s involved in Aligning for Impact?
Catalyzed by a shared commitment to advance the scientific enterprise, the Impact Funders Forum, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Wellcome launched Aligning for Impact in spring 2026. More than 30 funders from around the world participated in a kick-off meeting. Other funders and research system partners will be engaged as the initiative launches in fall 2026 with the creation of an international steering committee.
Who benefits?
- Funders—philanthropic and public, including the donors and governments supporting their work—benefit from the tools, processes, and networks needed to maximize their return on research investments.
- Scientists and the universities and research organizations that support them benefit from evidence-based funding programs and realistic, transparent, and clear expectations of what success looks like.
- Research users and the public benefit from robust, evidence-based solutions to local and global challenges.
Find out more or get involved
Aligning for Impact welcomes new participants and partners. To learn more or explore opportunities to get involved, please contact Jocelyn Hastings at [email protected].