The impact of impact: How research value is created and assessed in the UK, US and Australia

背景和目标随着大学作为经济繁荣的驱动力而被束缚在公共角色中，全球政策转向衡量公共资助研究的价值和效益。尽管各国政府在定义、方法和程序方面存在争议，但仍投入大量资源评估研究的影响。资源的迅速引导到影响，导致了一个理论不足的领域，主要是由务实的研究政策问题（即侧重于程序和机制）为主。缺少的是对研究影响的社会价值的更细致的概念化，这对于确保研究投资产生有意义的社会成果至关重要。为了抓住这一价值，需要对影响及其评估对研究文化的影响进行理论上知情的经验性见解。这将是第一次大规模比较研究，考察各国研究的影响。该项目将比较三个国家的学术文化，这三个国家参与了对研究影响的评估的国际推动;英国，美国和澳大利亚，它们使用了截然不同的评估模型。该项目将从理论上理解研究的影响及其衡量。它将确定国家研究影响评估政策和做法的影响，并确定它们如何塑造研究的方式和知识的后果。潜在的应用程序和benefitthere是一个迫切需要深入研究的机构和个人的影响，研究评估，询问经常不加批判地接受主导形式的估值。这项研究将是新颖的，在其检查的强大修辞的价值，主导研究影响的讨论，并在其阐述的挑战，涉及审计和学术研究的商品化。这项研究将推进社会学和政治学对研究价值的理解，并将为研究评估和公共政策的应用领域提供理论知识。它将审查围绕研究影响的新兴文化模式，并阐明围绕影响政策的决策和权威的政治过程。该研究将塑造英国、美国和澳大利亚影响力文化的学术辩论，并有助于更大范围内关于公共资助研究价值的辩论。该研究具有强大的潜力，可以影响英国、美国、澳大利亚和全球范围内决定如何衡量影响力以及如何管理公共资助研究的政策。通过与科学政策制定者、研究资助者和研究人员等利益攸关方直接合作，它将为关于大学和研究在社会中的作用的辩论提供信息，并促进建立更强大、更具反思性和道德的研究体系。它将就政策制定者、资助者和高等教育领导者可以向研究人员提供的结构和资源提出建议，以支持他们实现对社会做出有意义贡献的高质量研究。了解研究影响及其评估至关重要，不仅对英国，美国和澳大利亚政府具有战略意义，而且对具有类似或新兴评估和资助模式的国家也是如此。它将使各国能够有意建立反应迅速、公平的研究体系，促进核心价值观，例如对卓越研究和社会效益的双重关注。这项研究的产出将包括通过利益攸关方活动、一份工作文件、一份政策简报、博客和媒体文章以及一个项目网站，向决策者、从业人员和广大公众进行传播。学术传播将通过参加会议和在顶级期刊上发表开放获取文章来进行。

Context and aimsAs universities become bound up in a public role as drivers of economic prosperity, there has been a global policy shift towards measuring the value and benefit of publicly funded research. Governments have invested substantial resources in assessing research impact despite contestation around definitions, methodologies and processes. The rapid channelling of resources into impact has resulted in an under-theorised field that is largely dominated by pragmatic research policy concerns (i.e. focused on procedures and mechanisms). What is missing is a more nuanced conceptualisation of the societal value of research impact, which is essential in ensuring that research investment leads to meaningful societal outcomes. To capture this value, theoretically informed empirical insights into impact and the effects of its assessment on research cultures are needed. This, in turn, can inform the responsible evaluation of publicly funded research.This will be the first large-scale comparative study examining research impact across countries. The project will compare academic cultures in three countries involved in the international push for the assessment of research impact; the UK, US and Australia, which utilise substantially different assessment models. The project will develop a theoretical understanding of research impact and its measurement. It will identify the effects of national research impact assessment policies and practices, and ascertain how they shape the ways research is done and their consequences for knowledge.Potential applications and benefitsThere is a pressing need for in-depth studies of the institutional and individual effects of research evaluation to interrogate frequently uncritical acceptance of dominant forms of valuation. This study will be novel in its examination of the powerful rhetoric of value that dominates discussions of research impact, and in its articulation of the challenges involved in the audit and commodification of academic research. This research will advance sociological and political understandings of research value, and will contribute theoretically informed knowledge to the applied fields of research evaluation and public policy. It will examine the emerging cultural patterns that surround research impact, and shed light on the political processes of decision-making and authority around impact policies. The study will shape the academic debate on the impact cultures of the UK, US and Australia, and contribute to a larger debate on the value of publicly funded research.The study has strong potential to influence the policies that determine how impact is measured and how publicly funded research is governed in the UK, US, Australia and globally. By working directly with stakeholders including science policymakers, research funders and researchers, it will inform debate on the role of universities and research in society and facilitate more robust, reflexive and ethical research systems. It will provide recommendations on the structures and resources that policymakers, funders and higher education leaders could make available to researchers to support them in achieving high-quality research that makes a meaningful contribution to society. Understanding research impact and its assessment is of critical importance, not only strategically for UK, US and Australian governments, but also for countries with similar or emerging evaluation and funding models. It will allow countries to be intentional about creating responsive, equitable research systems that promote core values, such as a dual focus on research excellence and societal benefit. Outputs from the study will include dissemination to policymakers, practitioners and the wider public through events for stakeholders, a working paper, a policy brief, blogs and media articles and a project website. Academic dissemination will occur through conference participation and open access articles in top journals.