Paper Short Abstract

The paper explores the rise of impact services at UK universities in connection to the establishment of impact as one of the evaluation criteria in REF. The survey conducted at 156 institutions evidences the creation of new roles, positions and institutional practices.

Paper Abstract

The establishment of research impact as an evaluation criterion in the British Research Excellence Framework brought about notable changes in the way academic work is understood and organized. While changes to the academic environment, academic ethos and academic discourse have been somewhat explored in existing studies (Chubb & Watermeyer, 2017; Watermeyer, 2014; Wróblewska, 2021), this paper attempts an overview of the rise of impact services. We focus on new roles (impact officer) and positions (impact champion) emerging in the area of support for impact generation as well as institutional practices (prizes for impact). This article builds on a survey conducted among 156 institutions in the UK. We advance a hypothesis regarding the emergence of an impact infrastructure around the new academic value – ‘research impact’. The study will be of interest to scholars of academic culture and governance as well as to practitioners.

While in principal a paper proposal, we are happy to provide a poster in addition.

Chubb, J., & Watermeyer, R. (2017). Artifice or integrity in the marketization of research impact? Investigating the moral economy of (pathways to) impact statements within research funding proposals in the UK and Australia. Studies in Higher Education, 42(12), 2360–2372.

Watermeyer, R. (2014). Issues in the articulation of ‘impact’: The responses of UK academics to ‘impact’ as a new measure of research assessment. Studies in Higher Education, 39(2), 359–377.

Wróblewska, M. N. (2021). Research impact evaluation and academic discourse. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), Article 1.