As of 2013, university research in Britain is to be assessed for its social, economic and cultural impact.
A new method for assessing the quality of research carried out at UK universities will see 20 per cent of the marks being awarded for social, economic and cultural impact.
The Research Excellence Framework (RAE), due to come into effect in 2013, will replace the current Research Assessment Exercise, under which institutions were judged solely on outputs – in terms of number of papers and citations; and on the quality of the research environment.
Under the REF there will be an explicit element assessing the impact arising from research, alongside measuring outputs and the quality of the research environment. After some horse trading, the initial proposal that impact should account for 25 per cent of the ranking has been watered down to 20 per cent.
The assessment of impact will be based on expert review of case studies submitted by universities outlining any social, economic or cultural outcomes of research generated at the submitting institution within a given timeframe. This will include details on how the institution supported and enabled the impact to happen.
Assessment of research outputs will account for 65 per cent, and research environment will account for 15 per cent, of the overall assessment outcomes.
The announcement follows a pilot exercise to test and develop the impact proposals with 29 universities making submissions to five pilot panels in Clinical Medicine, Physics, Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, Social Work and Social Policy, and English Language and Literature.
The pilot panels concluded that it is possible to assess the impact of research through an approach based on expert review of case studies. They also made a series of recommendations for refining and improving the process, for implementation in the full REF. Feedback from the universities that took part in the pilots confirmed these conclusions.
For the first REF exercise the impact element will cover research carried out from 1 January 2008 to 31 July 2013. Impacts may be at any stage of development or maturity, with submissions being assessed in respect of impacts that have taken place during the assessment period, and not future or potential impacts.
There will now be a series of workshops over 2011, to get input from users of university research into appropriate criteria for assessing impact.
The Research Excellence Framework (RAE), due to come into effect in 2013, will replace the current Research Assessment Exercise, under which institutions were judged solely on outputs – in terms of number of papers and citations; and on the quality of the research environment.
Under the REF there will be an explicit element assessing the impact arising from research, alongside measuring outputs and the quality of the research environment. After some horse trading, the initial proposal that impact should account for 25 per cent of the ranking has been watered down to 20 per cent.
The assessment of impact will be based on expert review of case studies submitted by universities outlining any social, economic or cultural outcomes of research generated at the submitting institution within a given timeframe. This will include details on how the institution supported and enabled the impact to happen.
Assessment of research outputs will account for 65 per cent, and research environment will account for 15 per cent, of the overall assessment outcomes.
The announcement follows a pilot exercise to test and develop the impact proposals with 29 universities making submissions to five pilot panels in Clinical Medicine, Physics, Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, Social Work and Social Policy, and English Language and Literature.
The pilot panels concluded that it is possible to assess the impact of research through an approach based on expert review of case studies. They also made a series of recommendations for refining and improving the process, for implementation in the full REF. Feedback from the universities that took part in the pilots confirmed these conclusions.
For the first REF exercise the impact element will cover research carried out from 1 January 2008 to 31 July 2013. Impacts may be at any stage of development or maturity, with submissions being assessed in respect of impacts that have taken place during the assessment period, and not future or potential impacts.
There will now be a series of workshops over 2011, to get input from users of university research into appropriate criteria for assessing impact.
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