Dr Claire Donovan
The Australian National University
Claire Donovan is a Research Fellow in the Research Evaluation and Policy Project (REPP) at the Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University. Her first degree was in Philosophy (BA Hons) at the University of Southampton (1993), and she took her MA and DPhil in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex (1995, 2002). Before joining REPP in 2003 she was a Research Fellow in social studies of science at The Open University, and a Leverhulme postdoctoral researcher at Nuffield College, Oxford University, working with Professor A. H. Halsey on A History of Sociology in Britain: Science Literature and Society (Oxford University Press). During her time at REPP she has focused on approaches to measuring research ‘impact’ or the social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits of publicly funded research (in all fields); and critically assessing measures of research quality and impact applied to the humanities, arts and social sciences. This research spans political theory, sociology, science and technology studies, and scientometrics. Claire has published extensively on the governance of social science; evaluation, metrics, and technologies of governance; comparative science, higher education and innovation policy (Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, UK); technocracy and democracy; and social and political aspects of ‘positivism’ and post-positivism. She has also been a senior advisor to government, and in 2006 was Chair of an Australian government Technical Working Group on Research Impact, which influenced the design of Australia’s Research Quality Framework. She is completing a book The Governance of Social Science: New Foundations of a Science for Society (Edward Elgar Publishing). While a visiting fellow at CRASSH, Claire will be working on another book, Beyond the Post-modern University.
