By Nathan Coombs, Hilary MacDonogh, and Eugénia Rodrigues.
Incentivising and supporting the ‘impact’ of social science research has become an objective for funding bodies in the UK and worldwide over recent decades. Defining the impacts of social science research on the economy, policy and society is key to demonstrating that public expenditure on such research makes a difference and represents value for money. However, despite impact requirements diffusing globally, the term remains hard-to-define and relates ambiguously with knowledge exchange, engagement, and outcomes.
This report was commissioned by the ESRC to shed light on the current state-of-the-art in the policy space by mapping, evaluating and learning from contemporary trends in defining the impact of social science research. By reviewing and comparing the frameworks of a selection of national and international funding bodies, the project examines how definitions and conceptualisations of impact have evolved through their diffusion in new organizational contexts. The report further asks whether these trends yield insights for the ESRC’s own future definitions of, and approaches to, impact.
The report has three key findings. First, funders have taken diverse approaches to how knowledge exchange, engagement, outcomes and impact are defined, conceptualised and interrelated. Second, the value of metrics for measuring social impact are increasingly recognised by funders but to supplement rather than replace case- based, narrative methods. Third, the report finds that definitions and measurements of the economic impact of social scientific research remain under-developed. In addition to these core findings, the report suggests a new concept: process impact. This term is used to describe how some international funders have begun to include the knowledge exchange, engagement and interactions occurring throughout the duration of a research project within their definition of impact.
You can download the full report at the button below.
This blog and report has also been published by the Innovation and Research Caucus.
