Providing evidence of impact from public engagement with research: A case study from the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF)

Jon Copley

doi:10.18546/rfa.02.2.03

Abstract

Societal benefits of public engagement were recognized as 'impact' from research in the UK's recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), which determines an allocation of central government funding for universities and shapes the landscape for university researchers undertaking such activities. This paper shares experience from a successful REF Impact Case Study based on a programme of informing/inspiring-type public engagement, illustrating how engagement goals can match definitions of impact for the REF, and summarizing types of evidence used to demonstrate 'reach' and 'significance' of impact in media engagement, face-to-face engagement and online engagement, which represent common activities undertaken by many researchers.

Highlights

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the periodic assessment of ‘research quality’ currently used to determine the UK government’s allocation of ‘mainstream quality-related (QR) funding’ to individual higher education institutions (HEIs)
The award of a 4* score to an Impact Case Study in the REF2014 has been estimated to be worth more than £300,000 in QR funding on average over the 2015– 2021 period, and around five times the QR income generated from submission of a 4* research paper (Reed and Kerridge, 2017)
With such financial outcomes at stake, the perceived criteria for success in the REF may exert a strong influence on researcher behaviour at UK HEIs (Murphy and Sage, 2015), with the new impact element potentially shaping the involvement of researchers in activities such as public engagement (Smith et al, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the periodic assessment of ‘research quality’ currently used to determine the UK government’s allocation of ‘mainstream quality-related (QR) funding’ to individual higher education institutions (HEIs). The award of a 4* score to an Impact Case Study in the REF2014 has been estimated to be worth more than £300,000 in QR funding on average over the 2015– 2021 period, and around five times the QR income generated from submission of a 4* research paper (Reed and Kerridge, 2017) With such financial outcomes at stake, the perceived criteria for success in the REF may exert a strong influence on researcher behaviour at UK HEIs (Murphy and Sage, 2015), with the new impact element potentially shaping the involvement of researchers in activities such as public engagement (Smith et al, 2011). These characteristics define a common form of public engagement undertaken by scientists, and an example of building an Impact Case Study from them may be of interest to researchers and other HEI staff involved in public engagement for future iterations of the REF

Background to the Impact Case Study

Discussion

Findings

Notes on the contributor