Social Impact & Why We Should Include It As Part of UK Research Assessment

SpotOn London 2014 took place at the Wellcome Collection last week and one of the real highlights of the conference was the keynote panel discussion on social impact & research assessment. David Sweeney, Director of Research, Education & Knowledge Exchange at HEFCE, Phil Campbell, Editor-in-Chief at Nature, Jane Tinkler, Research Fellow at the LSE Public Policy Group, and Jonathan Adams, Digital Science’s Chief Scientist, made up an impressive panel and the insightful discussion reflected their great expertise in this area.

Taking the 2014 REF as a case study of the increasing trend for funders to assess social as well as academic impact, the session looked at the challenges for researchers and institutions in balancing social impact and academic advancement. The panel also tackled the issue  and challenge of giving credit within academia for social impact.

You can watch a video recording of the session’s live-stream below.