I NSTITUTIONAL S TRATEGIES FOR C APTURING S OCIO -E CONOMIC I MPACT OF A CADEMIC R ESEARCH Dr Rosa Scoble Deputy Director Planning (Research & Resources) Brunel University

Content Perspectives – Context: what counts as impact – Just a Question of Time… – Taxonomies for impact – Research Capital Challenges Strategies – Identification – Assessment – Enhancement Graduate Training

U0U0 Users Non-Academic Communities Academia R0R0 Context: what counts as impact U0U0 Users Non-Academic Communities Academia R0R0 R1R1 R2R2 U1U1 U2U2 U3U3 U4U4 Non-Academic Communities Academia Knowledge Brokers U1U1 U2U2 U3U3 U4U4 U2U2 U3U3 U4U4 Professional Bodies C1C1 U1U1 Learned Societies C2C2 Lobby Groups C3C3 Policy Makers R2R2 P1P1 P2P2 P3P3 R1R1 R0R0

Just a Question of Time… Debate between blue-sky research vs. more applied research. Will blue-sky research be penalised... theoretical research without regard to any future application of its result Maybe the distinction is just a question of time – 1687 universal gravitation – 1953 double-helix model of DNA structure High quality/ground breaking research will always have impact: it is intrinsic in its nature. The knowledge created will, eventually, contribute to solving world problems

Taxonomies of impact Health Economics Research Group (Brunel University) – Buxton and Hanney, 1996

Taxonomies of impact Working Paper : Measuring the impacts of science: beyond the economic dimension Godin and Doré (2004) 1.Science 2.Technology 3.Economy 4.Culture 5.Society 6.Policy 7.Organisation 8.Health 9.Environment 10.Symbolic 11.Training

Taxonomies of impact DIUS – Science and Innovation Investment Framework : Economic Impacts of Investment in Research and Innovation

Taxonomies of impact All models include A CADEMIC I MPACT N ON -A CADEMIC /S OCIO -E CONOMIC I MPACT No distinction in importance All part of the institutional Research Capital

12 FUNDED PROJECTS PHD STUDENTS RESEARCH OUTPUTS ACADEMIC IMPACT NON-ACADEMIC IMPACT NON-ACADEMIC IMPACT Research Capital

Challenges Academic impact: known – Tools to capture academic impact – Established norms – Proxies to assess academic impact: citations, bibliometrics, peer review, RAE, benchmarking, etc.... Vs. Non-academic impact: unknown – Academic community not used to track impact of their research – No norms – No proxies for assessment

Strategies: Identification Institutional level – Funded research – Knowledge Transfer activities: KTP, etc… – Research with high user involvement or knowledge brokers – Advisory roles Departmental level – Training and workshops – Involving marketing staff

Strategies: Assessment Two dimensions: – depth (or change that the research activity has generated) – spread (or how far it has permeated the user community) In absence of norms assessment is relative and comparative

Brunel Research Impact Device for Evaluation – BRIDE Scoble, Dickson, Fisher, & Hanney, 2009

Strategies: Enhancement Encourage – Include users at the research design stage – Think of ways to disseminate findings outside academia – Collaborate in multi-disciplinary projects Where impact has already occurred

Graduate Training Research Capital: individual Whos problems are they trying to solve Who are their user communities Will their research be of interest to disciplines closer to user communities Users/interest groups – Industry – Service industry – Policy makers – Lobby groups – Learned societies – Communities – Public health Other disciplines – Technologies – Social sciences – Health Problems –Economic growth/profit –Efficient/effective processes –Cultural enrichment –Quality of life –Health –Democratic debates

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