Why are we having this
conversation
 Might be helpful to know a bit about the external
context on ‘impact.’
 Need to know how to better support the activities
people are already involved in/how to facilitate our
work on impact (as we define it).
External Context on Impact
 R and D approach
 REF
 Funders: AHRC; ESRC; ERC.
 Responses being forged by other universities
R and D Approach
 Emphasis on start ups,
spin offs, industry
collaborations,
commercialisation of IP
and knowledge transfer.
 Kent Enterprise and
Innovation Unit
REF
 Impact sub-profile (20%), evidenced via research case studies
and a departmental impact profile
Impact is defined as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy,
society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or
quality of life, beyond academia.
 Includes, but is not limited to, an effect on, change or benefit to:
• the activity, attitude, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity,
performance, policy, practice, process or understanding
• of an audience, beneficiary, community, constituency, organisation or
individuals
• in any geographic location whether locally, regionally, nationally or
internationally.
(Assessment Framework, p 26).
http://www.ref.ac.uk/media/ref/content/pub/assessmentframeworkandg
uidanceonsubmissions/02_11.pdf
Panel C guidance
 Reach will be understood in terms of the extent and
diversity of the communities, environments,
individuals, organisations or any other beneficiaries
that have benefited or been affected.
 Significance will be understood in terms of the
degree to which the impact has enriched, influenced,
informed or changed policies, opportunities,
perspectives or practices of communities, individuals
or organisations. (Panel C guidance, in Panel Criteria
and Working Methods, para 102).
For Panel C impact includes:
holding public or private bodies to account or
subjecting proposed changes in society, public policy,
business practices, and so on to public scrutiny.
contribution to critical public debate around policy,
social or business issues.
research findings may generate critique or dissent,
which itself leads to impact(s). “For example,
research may find that a government approach to a
particular social or economic issue is not delivering
its objectives, which leads to the approach being
questioned or modified”(Panel C Guidance, para 80)
RCUK
Economic and societal impacts
The demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes
to society and the economy. Economic and societal impacts
embrace all the extremely diverse ways in which researchrelated knowledge and skills benefit individuals,
organisations and nations by:
 fostering global economic performance, and specifically
the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom,
 increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy,
 enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.
(What do research councils mean by impact? Available at
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/kei/impacts/Pages/meanbyimpact.as
px).
AHRC 2011-15 Plan
 AHRC will take more focused approach to stimulating and increasing
impact, focused on the Creative Economy (creative industries and
public infrastructure of museums, galleries, libraries, orchestras,
theatres).
 Target of 30 sustainable partnerships with private sector enterprises
over the spending period.
 Will prioritise heritage research; cohesive communities; working
alongside govt. depts. to assist in developing public services; helping
UK innovation in design, new media, and digital technology;
 E.g. of their impact include research on religion and youth, design for
social purposes (e.g. against crime); trust in public life; role of beliefs
and cultural and creative activities in community life; potential of
creative economy to stimulate economic prosperity; cultural tourism;
contribution to “Big Society” agenda.
ERC: The Frontier Bites Back?
 March 2012: at its annual meeting it re-iterated its
commitment to funding ‘frontier’ ‘blue-skies’ research.
In tough economic times, “one answer is to target
resources...to look to strategic sectors, to put science to
work on the most pressing problems. It all looks so easy,
so obvious. But frontier science does not work like this.
We cannot programme scientific breakthroughs or order
them from a menu...We can't foresee the consequences
of what we discover.“ (Prof Helga Nowotny, President of
the European Research Council, THE 8 March 2012).
 BUT has “proof of concept ” funding to help
researchers with existing ERC grants apply their ideas,
“to bridge the final gap between research and the
earliest stages of innovation.”
 Ex. from Kings of a 139,000 Euro grant to develop
“impact tracer”, a web application that can be used to
trace the impact of specific texts on public debate
(http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/europeanstudi
es/newsrecords/2011-12/ercfunding.aspx
Responses in Universities: Petitions
and Annoyed Comments from
Anon.
 The problem with this new drive for
"impact" is that the only tangible
result will be a mountain of drivel in
the form of "impact statements"
‘Thousands of
academics call
for impact to be
axed’
THE 13 December 2009. Available at:
http://www.timeshighereducation.
co.uk/story.asp?storycode=409395
dreamed up to justify the work we
are already doing. They are almost
always complete fabrications, made
up to satisfy some bureaucrat or to
tick some box. The really absurd
part is that most grant reviewers are
other academics, who also must
draft these fantastical statements
for their own research and realise
what a load b*ll**ks it all is.
These impact assessment exercises
…. are an appalling waste of time
and energy.” (Anon, in on-line
comments to 2009 THE article).
Other Responses: Hiring,
University Self-Publicising, and
Guidance on Staff Self-Publicising.
 Hiring impact coordinators for the REF
 Swansea Law School’s research impact statement:
emphasizes IP, contribution to economy, plus a little on
NGO consulting
(http://www.swansea.ac.uk/law/research/researchimpact/)
 UCL: emphasizes broader policy impact, and public
engagement
(http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/experts/index.shtml?policy_i
mpact; http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/pe/).
Russell Group
 Report on benefits to businesses: “The total estimated
annual turnover from companies ‘spun out’ from
Russell Group universities was £724 million, 70% of
the total for the whole of the HE sector.”
 Other publicised examples of impact include a better
policing initiative, wherein an officer from the LAPD
visited to learn about community policing with
Muslim community groups in Leeds and take lessons
back to US.
“MAXIMIZING THE IMPACTS OF YOUR RESEARCH:
A HANDBOOK FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS”
LSE Public Policy Group Consultation Draft. April 2011.
 285 pages of systematic advice on how to maximize the
academic impacts of your research in terms of
citations and other measures of influence, and how to
achieve greater visibility and impacts with audiences
outside the university
 External impact measured by references to an
academic’s work made by sources outside the
university sector.
We are doomed, but anthropology
is doomed worse
What is missing?
 Critical epistemological reflections; critical




pedagogical practices
Support for practices that try to break down
conventional divisions between knower and known in
research
Two way impact
Fostering collaborative impact environments
Our ‘impact’ context?
Further Reading/Listening
 http://socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk/?p=487
 http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sto
rycode=419276 (on ERC rejection of ‘impact’).
 http://www2.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroup
s/LSEPublicPolicy/Docs/LSE_Impact_Handbook_Apri
l_2011.pdf
 http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/podcasts
/
 http://www.joanbaez.com/Lyrics/gulfwinds.html
(song about her physicist Dad trying to find research
work outside the US military-industrial complex).