Assessing (for) impact: future assessment of the societal impact of research

Steven Hill

doi:10.1057/palcomms.2016.73

Abstract

AbstractNational research assessments play a role in providing accountability—to funders, government and civil society—for the activities of largely autonomous research systems. Increasingly, an element of such assessments is the assessment of societal impact. In this article, I review the development of impact assessment, with a focus on the UK’s Research Excellence Framework, and consider implications and challenges for the future. Notwithstanding these challenges, I further argue that the assessment of societal impact needs to become a more central aspect of research evaluation. This article is published as part of a collection on the future of research assessment.

Highlights

Across the world many Governments invest significant amounts on public money into research (OECD, 2015)
The aim of this article is to consider the current state of play with regard to ex post evaluation, and consider the development and future trajectory of research impact assessment
My perspective on these developments is that of a policymaker who has spent almost a decade immersed in the practicalities of research impact

Summary

Introduction

Across the world many Governments invest significant amounts on public money into research (OECD, 2015). The outcomes of the assessment, aggregated to the level of submitting disciplinary units were published at the end of 2014,13 and a searchable database of the impact case studies was made available during the course of 2015.14 The process of the assessment has been subject to considerable evaluation and analysis (Manville et al, 2015a, b; Samuel and Derrick, 2015; Derrick and Samuel, 2016).

Objectives

Results

Conclusion