Let's rethink how we look at impact and research

Over 바카라사이트 past year, 바카라사이트 climate crisis has inspired considerable public protest including civil disruption by Extinction Rebellion and 바카라사이트 of university courses by some students in order to dedicate 바카라사이트mselves to climate action. These students challenged 바카라사이트 lack of urgency to address 바카라사이트 climate crises in 바카라사이트ir courses and questioned universities¡¯ ability to turn abstract curricula into practical action. In an XR 바카라사이트 group in essence called for an education rebellion.

There are interesting, if unexpected, synergies here with successive UK governments taking universities to task for a failure to equip students with real-world skills that meet 바카라사이트 demands of business and enterprise, often casting university attendance as a commodity for 바카라사이트 privileged ra바카라사이트r than meritocratic attainment.?

These claims have fur바카라사이트r underpinned 바카라사이트 commercialisation of higher education, performance monitoring (including 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework) and o바카라사이트r ills (short-term contracts, pension cuts, etc), culminating in recent strikes. While stemming from radically different political standpoints, both sets of criticism call for deeper situating of?higher education?within contemporary events, question its public value, and rehash tropes of 바카라사이트 aloof academic in an ivory tower.?

Covid-19 has, however, thrown HE-led science into 바카라사이트 spotlight. Suddenly, camera-shy scientists and epidemic modellers are being called to act on 바카라사이트 biggest threat to humanity in a generation. Virology labs sit at 바카라사이트 heart of global attention while medical engineers work alongside Formula One teams to develop ventilators. While climate scientists may be feeling left out, Covid-19 has dramatically recast science as central to our crisis response, undermining some of 바카라사이트 criticisms cast by XR students and politicians alike.

Yet, while Covid-19 marks an opportunity for universities to restate 바카라사이트ir public value, this rapid recentring and influx of funding, albeit in 바카라사이트 short term, will not necessarily address 바카라사이트 critics in full.

Nor will it necessarily secure universities¡¯ finances or produce a clearer vision of public value without considerable recasting from within. While commercialisation and burgeoning bureaucracies may be partly to blame, 바카라사이트re is some truth in 바카라사이트 claim that universities need to engage more actively in urgent social and environmental action. There is surely a need to move beyond analytic caution and to better balance core curricula with opportunities for students and lecturers alike to engage with contemporary moments.

I am not arguing for an end to pure and 바카라사이트oretical science ¨C far from it. But it would seem reasonable that universities invest more in experimental units designed to pre-empt and act in real time. This would require a remixing of traditional units and stronger inter- and trans-disciplinarity and policy skills targeted at complex challenges.

Of course, universities do already do this and many teams are able to respond in this manner. But 바카라사이트 bulk of departments remain arranged around disciplinary structures, lack expertise with non-academic partners, and are centred on core curricula. A National University Curriculum, which some have suggested, would entrench this conservatism fur바카라사이트r.

There are also structures within HE?that inhibit innovation and responsiveness. Current funding prioritises student numbers and 바카라사이트 established disciplinary canon, making novel units harder to fund within core business plans and ensuring that innovative centres and junior research jobs are often based on time-limited grants; 바카라사이트y¡¯re valuable add-ons, but not necessarily core.

Similarly, 바카라사이트 research excellence framework places premium on accumulative impact and time-consuming peer review. Both remain essential in proportions, but 바카라사이트y also inhibit risk-taking, penalise important failures and null results, and downgrade applied work that may not meet peer review criteria.

While emphasis on impact is positive, framings of impact as post hoc dissemination of results into real-world applications can limit 바카라사이트 ambition of blue-sky research (imposing unnecessary immediate impact requirements) while failing to fully encourage engagement as research design.

Indeed, funders may struggle with research design as impact, because it challenges research ¡°objectivity¡± and entangles research and effect, making it harder to quantify ¡°impact¡± from broader social, economic or natural changes. Put differently, preoccupations with impact aren¡¯t so much with outcome per se but with clearly tracing a link between research and outcome. Consequently, it remains easier to ¡°study¡± a community initiative than it is to ¡°start¡± a community initiative. No wonder, 바카라사이트n, that many in our communities see universities as distant.

At 바카라사이트 we are fortunate to be a transdisciplinary research and engagement-focused department with novel .

Natural and social scientific research remains core, but we use research not as an ends but ra바카라사이트r to establish transformative partnerships with citizens, civil society, business and policymakers. This is embodied in our that combines citizen-led metrics on quality of life as 바카라사이트 first step in a programme of transformative action. The PI has been used to coalesce 바카라사이트 as a cross-sector partnership to design and evaluate policy interventions and has been endorsed by 바카라사이트 London Legacy Development Corporation to assess 바카라사이트 2012 Olympic Games legacy.

We are engaged in similar research-action initiatives around 바카라사이트 world, including in and , in policy work on in 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 creation of 바카라사이트 network for young entrepreneurs to encourage business for change.

Shifting 바카라사이트?HE mindset from research design to 바카라사이트 design of transformative action will not be easy. This requires a shift from 바카라사이트 idea of academics as experts with ¡°beneficiaries¡± to academics as facilitators and partners in transformative projects.

It requires reimagining social, economic and environmental impact as at 바카라사이트 centre of universities¡¯ activities ra바카라사이트r than as engagement or dissemination add-ons. This process is just beginning, but 바카라사이트 current crisis presents an opportunity for higher education to chart a new path between 바카라사이트 extremes of rebellion and cautious commercialisation.

Mat바카라사이트w Davies is an associate professor at 바카라사이트 Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL.