Isis Impact

1st December 2005

There has been increased interest in the impact of publicly funded research since the publication in July 2006 of a report on “Increasing the economic impact of the Research Councils”, known as the Warry Report. The Report was largely critical and the Research Councils have been forced to respond defensively.

Isis IMPACT By Tom Hockaday

Now that Research Councils have demonstrated the positive impact that the research they fund has on the UK and the world in economic, social and policy terms it is not clear what may happen next.  However, it appears that for the time being government remains focused on the Impact agenda.

Universities are also in the frame as recipients of substantial sums of public funds from the Research Councils.  Universities are now promoting the impact of their research activities as the debate spreads.  Oxford University, for example, is publishing a research brochure with the title ‘Innovation and Impact’.

There are three areas of concern worth highlighting.

1. Language
Government is insisting on proving the ‘Economic Impact’ of the research.  In response to the point that the impact goes beyond the economy, government explains that when it uses the word Economic it includes social and policy impact.

The impact on the economy, society and public policy from research is enormous, wide-ranging and immensely impressive, over a sustained long time period.  As the jargon develops, it is preferable to talk about Impact without the Economic, Social and Policy explanation.

2. Objectives
In general, it is reasonable to expect a certain impact if this was a stated objective at the outset of the activity.  This begs the question whether or not economic impact is a stated objective of university research; if so how is this measured, and is there a danger someone wants the system re-organised to deliver against this objective.  These are enormous questions and investigating them runs the severe risk of irretrievably damaging the university research system we currently have.

3. Timescales
The impact of research is often unexpected and only realised many, many years into the future.  If research funding decisions are to be assessed against economic impact, this will by definition lead to short-termism as the impact of the research with long term impact will be invisible and impossible to assess.

There are two conclusions to be drawn in this Isis Impact:

1. Talk of Impact may be worthwhile; talk of Economic Impact is misguided and dangerous.

2. If economic impact becomes an objective of university research two bad things will happen: (i) a unique resource will be lost (the existing university research base) and (ii) overall impact will decline as short term criteria are used to assess research proposals.

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