by Dr Natalie Jones
Research activity within health and care services is growing, and there is increasing emphasis on demonstrating how research delivers real benefits for patients, services, and the workforce. While publications and citations are routinely reported, many meaningful outcomes of research remain harder to evidence—particularly those that influence culture, service delivery, and patient experience.
VICTOR (Visible ImpaCTs Of Research) is a research impact tool and online platform designed specifically to address this challenge. Led by NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber and co-produced through NIHR funding, VICTOR stands as the UK’s first online tool for real-time research impact assessment.
The platform supports organisations to identify, collect, and showcase the wider impacts of research, making visible the changes that matter most to patients, staff, and communities.
Co-designed to capture what matters
VICTOR was co-designed with:
- health and care researchers
- clinicians
- patients and members of the public
- research-active organisations
to ensure the tool reflects the types of impact most valued by stakeholders .
The tool captures impact across six key domains:
- health benefits
- service and workforce impacts
- research profile
- economic benefit
- organisational influence and reputation
- knowledge generation and exchange
This structure enables organisations to move beyond traditional academic measures and capture service change, patient experience, workforce development and collaboration outcomes.
A growing online community
VICTOR was published in 2018, but the online platform version has been available since April 2024, and adoption has expanded rapidly. The most recent evaluation shows:
- over 860 registered users
- 77 research-active organisations using VICTOR across the UK
- 83 impact projects created
VICTOR is currently being used across a wide range of study types, including:
- large multi-centre portfolio trials
- single-site studies
- MSc and doctoral research projects
- service evaluation and innovation projects
Study populations include maternity services, stroke rehabilitation, children and young people, care home residents, people living with long-term conditions and those receiving palliative care, demonstrating the flexibility and adaptability of the tool.
Evidence of impact
A recent evaluation of the VICTOR platform sought to understand how it is being used, the value users derive from it and priorities for future development. Key findings include:
- 63% of users had used VICTOR in more than one study
- over half planned to integrate VICTOR into future research projects
- many users reported that VICTOR helped identify hidden or unexpected impacts that would not otherwise have been captured
Examples of impacts identified using VICTOR include:
- service improvements and pathway redesign
- development of new clinical skills and roles
- increased readiness and confidence to take part in research
- enhanced collaboration within multidisciplinary teams
- reputational benefits and increased research visibility
In several cases, VICTOR demonstrated that research continued to shape practice more than a year after studies had concluded.
Supporting research culture and capacity
VICTOR was specifically designed to make visible the often overlooked “by-products” of research participation, such as:
- enhanced research culture
- workforce development
- confidence and leadership
- service innovation
These outcomes are increasingly recognised as central to NIHR’s ambition to embed research within everyday care and to ensure that patients benefit from research-active services.
Future development
The 2025 evaluation also identified several areas for future development, including:
- enhanced onboarding materials and training resources
- dashboards to visualise impact in real time
- further development for use in social care and public health
- integration of equality, diversity and inclusion measures
- a dedicated version focused on research capacity building
Development of VICTOR will continue in collaboration with health and care partners, researchers and patient contributors.
Find out more
To learn more about VICTOR, access resources or explore opportunities to implement the tool within your organisation, please click here or contact:
