Event Details

"Some reflections on the impact challenge" - LUMS Research Impact Seminar Series - John Bessant, University of Exeter Business School

‘Impact’ has risen up the agenda in terms of REF – but it’s always been a challenge for universities. The ‘why’ question has been around for a long time – the need to balance concerns from funders that they are getting enough ‘bang’ for their research buck with a longer-term view which sees universities as explorers along a knowledge frontier. But the impact question has moved centre stage from its fringe position in earlier research assessment exercises, and so the challenge now moves to considerations of ‘how’? What are the possible routes to impact and how can we explore and extend them? How can we measure something which may not have been in the original thinking behind a research proposal? How can we maintain an exploratory orientation while simultaneously needing to give attention to impact throughout the life cycle of a research project, from initial proposal, through project execution to final reporting? This seminar will try and look at the issue of how, drawing on a range of experiences and approaches and in particular the findings of the ESPRC/ESRC Grand Challenge on Innovation and Productivity which looked at how HEIs could deliver impact.