Theory of Change
Maximising the global impact of Oxford’s research
This impact report centres around OUI’s “Theory of Change” – a model that explains how OUI enables the creation of impact from research in the University of Oxford.
Maximising the global impact of Oxford’s research is OUI’s goal, be that social, environmental or economic impact. This goal was our starting point in creating our Theory of Change, and continues to be our compass guiding us on the right path.
Working backwards from our end goal, we articulated our activities and their outcomes. We considered the inputs needed at the start of the process for us to carry out our work. We challenged our own assumptions too: do our activities really lead to the outputs we’d like? Do those outputs lead to outcomes that help us achieve our goal? Theory of Change is not a one-off process; it allows us to continuously review what we’re doing and brings a focus to our work.