Before Redesigning the REF, a New Survey Could Help in Understanding What Is and Isn’t Working
September's call for more sustainable and agile research funding signaled a renewed push by research-intensive universities for a funding and assessment system with a lighter touch. Before embarking on a further round of changes, it is important to listen and learn from researchers and managers about what has and has not worked well.
Oct 6, 2020 Research Professional News
The Future of Research Outputs
The changing nature of research outputs has the potential to affect a wide range of organizations and people. A proactive stance could help drive research towards better practices in information storage, sharing and communication, but requires early action and shared goals at a sector level.
May 12, 2020 British Library
What Is the Future of England's Research and Research Assessment?
Rapid technological developments, changes in public policy, and shifts in the international environment all affect academia. To help understand these effects, RAND researchers asked more than 3,600 academics in England how they expect their research to evolve over the next decade.
Nov 1, 2019 Wonkhe
Treating Breast Cancer Is Not Just About the Disease: Its Wider Impacts Need to Be Considered, Too
Successes in the early treatment of breast cancer are to be celebrated. But those achievements need not limit the development of further and better treatment for patients. Understanding the disease's wider effects could help bring this about.
Oct 22, 2019 The RAND Blog
Outputs of the Future
Are all types of research outputs of equal value? How do different outputs serve different purposes? Exploring these questions could benefit not only funders and universities, but also result in overall better use of research resources.
Oct 11, 2019 Research Professional News
How to Design a Research Funder
Emerging challenges are leading to an increased emphasis on the impact of research beyond academia. At the same time, funders must adapt to changing expectations about what research can and should deliver, financial austerity, and developments in the topics and methods of research.
Mar 11, 2019 Research Fortnight
Evidence Synthesis—Behind the Scenes
The Royal Society and RAND Europe recently published an evidence synthesis on the impacts of ammonia emissions from agriculture on biodiversity. As well as aiming to provide a useful summary of the evidence to inform ongoing policy discussions, the study was intended to test the Royal Society's recently developed principles for good evidence synthesis for policy.
Nov 30, 2018 The Royal Society
Ammonia – Why the Big Stink?
Ammonia pollution harms human health and reduces the richness and diversity of the environment. As new policy frameworks are implemented in the UK, there is an opportunity to support farmers to make the changes necessary to reduce ammonia pollution.
Sep 18, 2018 The Royal Society
Where Next for the Digital Society?
Digital technologies are omnipresent, both in terms of where we are and what we do. A digital society can bring about economic and societal gain, but there are many challenges that need to be addressed beyond the actual technologies.
Oct 14, 2016 The RAND Blog
What Can We Learn from High-Performing Research Units?
Central characteristics of high-performing research units are the high quality of the people and the culture and values displayed within the department, which is often a result of leadership. It is also interesting to explore their differences, such as what makes a unit particularly good at having impact versus producing high-quality publications.
Jun 28, 2016 Open Forum Events
What Makes for High-Performing Research? The Right Mix of Staff and Appropriate Leadership
With many different higher education institutions in the UK covering a diverse range of disciplines, and delivering research in a variety of ways, it can be difficult to determine the qualities and characteristics of high-performing higher education institutions.
Feb 22, 2016 PolicyWonkers
Analysing 'High Performance' Research Units in Higher Education
The characteristics that are central to high performance are people—as in recruiting and retaining the best—and the culture and values within the department, coupled with the leadership displayed.
Dec 4, 2015 Open Forum Events
What's Next for REF?
In 2014, the research of 154 UK universities was evaluated, accounting for the efforts of 52,061 academic staff members. For the first time, the impact that the research had on wider society was part of the assessment. As we approach the next assessment period, there is opportunity for discussion to tweak and refine future measures of impact.
Jul 8, 2015 Open Forum Events
Three Cheers for Research Users Engaging in REF 2014
In the UK, research outputs from universities are assessed every five years to determine future funding allocations from government. In 2014, for the first time, the Research Excellence Framework included an assessment of research impact. Research users played key roles throughout the process.
Mar 31, 2015 PolicyWonkers
REF 2014 Shows That Research Impact Can Be Assessed
For the first time anywhere, the UK has allocated funding to universities according to an assessment of research impact. An evaluation of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 process reveals that it worked, allowing different types of impacts drawn from a wide range of disciplines to be compared and scored.
Mar 27, 2015 Higher Education Funding Council for England Blog
REF 2014 Impact Submissions: Part of a Cultural Shift?
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) has incentivized universities to be more focused on their contribution to society beyond academia. The inclusion of impact as a component of the REF is leading to a cultural shift in the academic sector.
Mar 27, 2015 Higher Education Funding Council for England Blog
Measuring Impact: How Australia and the UK Are Tackling Research Assessment
The UK is the first country to attempt to allocate funding based on the wider societal impact of research, and in 2012, a subset of higher education institutions in Australia ran a small-scale pilot exercise to assess impact and understand the potential challenges of the process. What can be learned by comparing the UK and Australian approaches?
Dec 8, 2014 The Guardian
Probing the Barriers to Conducting Clinical Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Developing clinical research in sub-Saharan Africa requires a more holistic approach that considers not only individuals and institutions concerned with clinical research but also the wider health and research systems in these countries.
Sep 19, 2014 The RAND Blog
How Smart Are Our European Cities?
The urban population is expected to double by 2050, when seven out of every 10 people will live in cities. Poverty, inequality, unemployment, and energy management challenges are also expected to increase. One potential solution is the concept of the 'smart city.'
Jul 9, 2014 The RAND Blog