If this research is to be assessed alongside more applied research, it is important that we are able to at least determine the contribution of basic research. What are the methodologies and frameworks that have been employed globally to assess research impact and how do these compare? To allow comparisons between institutions, identifying a comprehensive taxonomy of impact, and the evidence for it, that can be used universally is seen to be very valuable. Impact assessments raise concerns over the steer of research towards disciplines and topics in which impact is more easily evidenced and that provide economic impacts that could subsequently lead to a devaluation of blue skies research. Enhancing Impact. It is possible to incorporate both metrics and narratives within systems, for example, within the Research Outcomes System and Researchfish, currently used by several of the UK research councils to allow impacts to be recorded; although recording narratives has the advantage of allowing some context to be documented, it may make the evidence less flexible for use by different stakeholder groups (which include government, funding bodies, research assessment agencies, research providers, and user communities) for whom the purpose of analysis may vary (Davies et al. It is now possible to use data-mining tools to extract specific data from narratives or unstructured data (Mugabushaka and Papazoglou 2012). It is a process that involves careful gathering and evaluating of data on the actions, features, and consequences of a program. The Author 2013. , , . 8. 0000007967 00000 n Here we address types of evidence that need to be captured to enable an overview of impact to be developed. 0000011201 00000 n Overview of the types of information that systems need to capture and link. It is perhaps worth noting that the expert panels, who assessed the pilot exercise for the REF, commented that the evidence provided by research institutes to demonstrate impact were a unique collection. Clearly there is the possibility that the potential new drug will fail at any one of these phases but each phase can be classed as an interim impact of the original discovery work on route to the delivery of health benefits, but the time at which an impact assessment takes place will influence the degree of impact that has taken place. Capturing knowledge exchange events would greatly assist the linking of research with impact. Metrics have commonly been used as a measure of impact, for example, in terms of profit made, number of jobs provided, number of trained personnel recruited, number of visitors to an exhibition, number of items purchased, and so on. 2009; Russell Group 2009). Productive interactions, which can perhaps be viewed as instances of knowledge exchange, are widely valued and supported internationally as mechanisms for enabling impact and are often supported financially for example by Canadas Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which aims to support knowledge exchange (financially) with a view to enabling long-term impact. Definition of Evaluation by Different Authors Tuckman: Evaluation is a process wherein the parts, processes, or outcomes of a programme are examined to see whether they are satisfactory, particularly with reference to the stated objectives of the programme our own expectations, or our own standards of excellence. The definition of health is not just a theoretical issue, because it has many implications for practice, policy, and health services. HEIs overview. A key concern here is that we could find that universities which can afford to employ either consultants or impact administrators will generate the best case studies. The main risks associated with the use of standardized metrics are that, The full impact will not be realized, as we focus on easily quantifiable indicators. The Payback Framework has been adopted internationally, largely within the health sector, by organizations such as the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Dutch Public Health Authority, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Welfare Bureau in Hong Kong (Bernstein et al. Professor James Ladyman, at the University of Bristol, a vocal adversary of awarding funding based on the assessment of research impact, has been quoted as saying that inclusion of impact in the REF will create selection pressure, promoting academic research that has more direct economic impact or which is easier to explain to the public (Corbyn 2009). It has been acknowledged that outstanding leaps forward in knowledge and understanding come from immersing in a background of intellectual thinking that one is able to see further by standing on the shoulders of giants. %PDF-1.3 Introduction, what is meant by impact? It is perhaps assumed here that a positive or beneficial effect will be considered as an impact but what about changes that are perceived to be negative? SIAMPI is based on the widely held assumption that interactions between researchers and stakeholder are an important pre-requisite to achieving impact (Donovan 2011; Hughes and Martin 2012; Spaapen et al. Evaluative research is a type of research used to evaluate a product or concept, and collect data to help improve your solution. Two areas of research impact health and biomedical sciences and the social sciences have received particular attention in the literature by comparison with, for example, the arts. The Payback Framework systematically links research with the associated benefits (Scoble et al. According to Hanna- " The process of gathering and interpreted evidence changes in the behavior of all students as they progress through school is called evaluation". In the majority of cases, a number of types of evidence will be required to provide an overview of impact. 0000342937 00000 n Any information on the context of the data will be valuable to understanding the degree to which impact has taken place. The book also explores how different aspects of citizenship, such as attitudes towards diverse population groups and concerns for social issues, relate to classical definitions of norm-based citizenship from the political sciences. Impact is derived not only from targeted research but from serendipitous findings, good fortune, and complex networks interacting and translating knowledge and research. (2007) adapted the terminology of the Payback Framework, developed for the health and biomedical sciences from benefit to impact when modifying the framework for the social sciences, arguing that the positive or negative nature of a change was subjective and can also change with time, as has commonly been highlighted with the drug thalidomide, which was introduced in the 1950s to help with, among other things, morning sickness but due to teratogenic effects, which resulted in birth defects, was withdrawn in the early 1960s. There is a distinction between academic impact understood as the intellectual contribution to ones field of study within academia and external socio-economic impact beyond academia. 0000001178 00000 n The Social Return on Investment (SROI) guide (The SROI Network 2012) suggests that The language varies impact, returns, benefits, value but the questions around what sort of difference and how much of a difference we are making are the same. Again the objective and perspective of the individuals and organizations assessing impact will be key to understanding how temporal and dissipated impact will be valued in comparison with longer-term impact. Research findings will be taken up in other branches of research and developed further before socio-economic impact occurs, by which point, attribution becomes a huge challenge. 0000009507 00000 n 2007). Classroom Assessment -- (sometime referred to as Course-based Assessment) - is a process of gathering data on student learning during the educational experience, designed to help the instructor determine which concepts or skills the students are not learning well, so that steps may be taken to improve the students' learning while the course is (2007), Nason et al. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. Downloadable! One of the advantages of this method is that less input is required compared with capturing the full route from research to impact. When considering the impact that is generated as a result of research, a number of authors and government recommendations have advised that a clear definition of impact is required (Duryea, Hochman, and Parfitt 2007; Grant et al. The Value of Public Sector R&D, Assessing impacts of higher education systems, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, Through a Glass, Darkly: Measuring the Social Value of Universities, Describing the Impact of Health Research: A Research Impact Framework, LSE Public Policy Group. The ability to record and log these type of data is important for enabling the path from research to impact to be established and the development of systems that can capture this would be very valuable. In designing systems and tools for collating data related to impact, it is important to consider who will populate the database and ensure that the time and capability required for capture of information is considered. Accountability. Impact is not static, it will develop and change over time, and this development may be an increase or decrease in the current degree of impact. 2007). Merit refers to the intrinsic value of a program, for example, how effective it is in meeting the needs those it is intended help. These . Given that the type of impact we might expect varies according to research discipline, impact-specific challenges present us with the problem that an evaluation mechanism may not fairly compare impact between research disciplines. This is being done for collation of academic impact and outputs, for example, Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools, which uses PubMed and text mining to cluster research projects, and STAR Metrics in the US, which uses administrative records and research outputs and is also being implemented by the ERC using data in the public domain (Mugabushaka and Papazoglou 2012). 60 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 63 /H [ 1325 558 ] /L 397637 /E 348326 /N 12 /T 396319 >> endobj xref 60 37 0000000016 00000 n Assessment refers to a related series of measures used to determine a complex attribute of an individual or group of individuals. The process of evaluation involves figuring out how well the goals have been accomplished. 10312. In this case, a specific definition may be required, for example, in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Assessment framework and guidance on submissions (REF2014 2011b), which defines impact 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.
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