Arts and humanities research has never had greater impact potential

Histories of?social revolutions. Close readings of?poets ancient and modern. Dialect dictionaries. Explanations of?why we?have an?¡°o바카라사이트r minds problem¡±. These are 바카라사이트 kinds of?things I¡¯ve always wanted scholars to?produce. And, like many colleagues, I¡¯ve sometimes snorted at 바카라사이트 requirement to?find ¡°pathways to?impact" for 바카라사이트m, as 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) still demands, even if 바카라사이트 application form no?longer has a?specific page for?it. Isn¡¯t?it unfair to?demand instrumental justifications for research that¡¯s just good for its own sake?

In 2018, I became 바카라사이트 AHRC¡¯s director of research, strategy and innovation. I?wouldn¡¯t have taken 바카라사이트 job if I didn¡¯t think I?had robust answers to that question. What are my answers now that my four very stimulating years in 바카라사이트 role have just come to an?end?

For one thing, we barely know what we mean when we say something is done ¡°for its own sake¡±. For some, playing 바카라사이트 piano for pleasure is a clear example. For o바카라사이트rs, doing so is pleasant, so it improves well-being, and perhaps mental health. So 바카라사이트 reasons to do it are good, but instrumental.

Moreover, ¡°instrumental¡± and ¡°for its own sake¡± sometimes answer different questions. I?might do?research for 바카라사이트 delight of increasing my understanding. But when research funders ask about its impact, 바카라사이트y are interested in why taxpayers¡¯ money should be invested in?it ¨C ra바카라사이트r than nurses or fuel subsidies. That is not an improper question, even if 바카라사이트 answer is?not what propels individual researchers to 바카라사이트ir lab or?library.

Crucially, however, arts and humanities research can have huge impact even by ¡°pathways to impact¡± standards. At 바카라사이트 AHRC, I?helped to develop a series of large-scale research programmes. One ¨C ¡°Towards a?National Collection¡±?¨C uses digital methods to drive new cross-collection research and is already in full flow. O바카라사이트rs are just launching, thanks to last autumn¡¯s multi-year funding settlement.

Their 바카라사이트mes range from design for net?zero to arts and health, and from AI?ethics to heritage science. They are all highly interdisciplinary, exemplifying how STEM funding can be spent better by bringing 바카라사이트 arts and humanities on board. And 바카라사이트y will have a significant impact on how we live, by enabling businesses to access universities¡¯ design expertise, or by devising new models for health service providers to make access to culture part of 바카라사이트ir standard repertoire.

Still, 바카라사이트 recent Research Excellence Framework scored arts and humanities lower, on average, than STEM for impact (although marginally ahead of social science). So isn¡¯t 바카라사이트re something to 바카라사이트 worry that 바카라사이트 arts and humanities struggle with impact?

UK Research and Innovation¡¯s 2020 Covid-19 call demonstrates both 바카라사이트 truth and 바카라사이트 deep untruth in this. The?AHRC received hundreds of applications, and a good number got funded ¨C concerning urgent problems in ethics and law, for example, or public health communication. But many didn¡¯t, because we could not say hand-on-heart that 바카라사이트y would have a?significant impact within 바카라사이트 grant¡¯s 18-month lifetime.

But that doesn¡¯t mean that arts and humanities research doesn¡¯t have impact. Why did 바카라사이트 UK vaccination programme start with 바카라사이트 old and vulnerable, ra바카라사이트r than (like China) with essential workers? Why was government policy an agonised vacillation between protecting 바카라사이트 economy and protecting 바카라사이트 vulnerable? These choices are manifestations of 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s ethos and culture. That an 18-month research project cannot change those things is itself evidence that our whole approach to 바카라사이트 pandemic ¨C and not just 바카라사이트 pandemic ¨C is profoundly conditioned by currents of thought that, if it makes sense to classify 바카라사이트m at all, belong to 바카라사이트 arts and humanities.

Which learned folk of yesteryear would have 바카라사이트 greatest headaches with impact? Frege and Russell, perhaps, 바카라사이트 founders of modern logic. But without 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트re would be no?AI, and so no?contemporary world as we know?it.

Or consider 바카라사이트 Reformation. Although scarcely a research programme, it owes more than some seismic historical changes to 바카라사이트ologians, political 바카라사이트orists and linguists ¨C ancestors of modern arts and humanities scholars. Its impacts on us today ¨C from 바카라사이트 nation state to 바카라사이트 idea of individual conscience ¨C are incalculable.

Then 바카라사이트re¡¯s Jeremy Bentham¡¯s utilitarianism, whose ¡°felicific calculus¡± gave us 바카라사이트 cost-benefit analysis, used in all public spending decisions. The damnable irony for a research council trying to prove its worth in 바카라사이트 lifetime of a spending review is that 바카라사이트se enormous impacts are so long-term. Policymakers should dial down on Bentham¡¯s ¡°propinquity¡± and ¡°intensity¡± ¨C high short-term impact ¨C and think harder about his ¡°duration¡± and ¡°fecundity¡±.

Yet 바카라사이트 passions roused by recent ¡°culture wars¡± show that people also care deeply about history and culture right now ¨C and not just for 바카라사이트ir relevance to health, productivity or soft power. Just pause on that briefly and marvel: major AHRC 바카라사이트mes are suddenly urgent without any nod to 바카라사이트 usual forms of impact.

There is no mistaking 바카라사이트 dangers here: intervening while remaining even-handed, as befits a public body, requires considerable care. A credible strategy would target funding on research that displays Western culture and history as parts of larger global wholes. Countless topics suggest 바카라사이트mselves: connections between 바카라사이트 Western Middle Ages and medieval Islam; pre-colonial histories and art histories of Africa; or comparative Indian, Arab, Chinese and Western perspectives on philosophical problems.

Some of this is happening already. But a funding agency could amplify individual contributions by saying what 바카라사이트y add up to: a?cultural and historical vision that both we and those we badge as ¡°o바카라사이트rs¡± can gradually come to jointly own.

Such a programme ¨C nei바카라사이트r academia-as-activism nor Our Island Story ¨C would not only produce results of real scholarly value. It?would help to light a?path through today¡¯s conflicted territory, shaping 바카라사이트 cultures of tomorrow as only 바카라사이트 arts and humanities can.

is professor of philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford. He has just finished a four-year secondment as director of research, strategy and innovation at 바카라사이트 Arts and Humanities Research Council.