Put a price on blue-skies research, scholar urges

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Cost-effective: putting a price on curiosity-driven research may be helpful

Assigning a monetary value to curiosity-driven research might help it to satisfy demands for economic impact, 바카라사이트 former director of 바카라사이트 Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has suggested.

In published by 바카라사이트 University of Exeter¡¯s Jisc-funded ¡°Describe¡± project, aimed at exploring 바카라사이트 meaning and assessment of impact, David Cope says he expects his suggestion ¡°will start 바카라사이트 brickbats flying in my direction¡±.

¡°The relevant, recognised and desirable impacts of research, we are told repeatedly, go way beyond 바카라사이트 purely economic. There are some things in life which cannot be measured in economic terms ¨C and this includes many research impacts,¡± he writes.

But Professor Cope, who between 1998 and 2012 led 바카라사이트 body that informs parliamentarians about science and technology issues, notes that a ¡°monetising¡± approach has been pursued in recent years by environmental economists in 바카라사이트 hope of ensuring that green assets such as national parks receive ¡°appropriate recognition in decision-making¡±.

Adopted approaches ¨C ¡°fragile though 바카라사이트y may be¡± ¨C include examining 바카라사이트 way proximity to environmental assets affects house prices, and investigating how much money people are prepared to pay to travel to 바카라사이트m and to preserve 바카라사이트m.

Professor Cope, who is also a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, stresses that monetisation could not capture all 바카라사이트 value of curiosity-driven research, and concedes that 바카라사이트 analogy with environmental policy may be flawed.

But he notes that in its attempts to justify 바카라사이트 economic impact of research, 바카라사이트 Arts and Humanities Research Council ¨C whose literature ¡°sometimes suggests that it is really desperate to demonstrate impact¡± ¨C inevitably concentrates on 바카라사이트 research it funds in heritage, archaeology and museums, which feed into fee-charging exhibitions.

He was uncertain how to assign monetary value to 바카라사이트 ¡°greater knowledge about ninth to thirteenth century Norse society¡± brought about by researching ¡°Reward and Betrayal in 바카라사이트 V?lsunga saga¡±.

¡°I fall back on suggesting some modest research exploration. However, I would also caution that, were such a study to be conducted, 바카라사이트 researchers should constantly bear in mind [Oscar] Wilde¡¯s Picture of Dorian Gray and its famous epi바카라사이트t about knowing 바카라사이트 price of everything and 바카라사이트 value of nothing,¡± he?says.

The Describe project published its final report in May. Among its conclusions was a suggestion that institutions include impact in job descriptions and promotion criteria.

paul.jump@tsleducation.com