From Impact to Engagement
A workshop organised by CRASSH Postdoctoral Researcher Forum.
Thursday 11 March, 2010 - 10.30 - 15.30 - CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge
From a programme and booking details please click here.
Speakers (in alphabetical order):
- Nicola Buckley - Cambridge University Festivals and Outreach Co-ordinator
- Dr Alastair Hunter - University and College Union
Alastair Hunter is currently President of the University and College Union (UCU). He was previously Senior Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies at the University of Glasgow. UCU is the largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff working in further and higher education throughout the UK. In response to proposals by the Higher Education Funding Council for England on assessing the impact of research in the future Research Excellence Framework (REF), UCU organised a campaign in support of 'curiosity driven research'. Nearly 18,000 researchers signed the campaign statement.
- Dr Napoleon Katsos - Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge
Napoleon is an applied linguist who has been involved with outreach and public engagement through the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics. He will be talking at the workshop about the activities that his Centre has hosted with emphasis on hints and tips on how to get started with public engagement from scratch. To find more about the Centre, and Napoleon's own research click here.
- Tom Kirk - Cambridge University Communications Officer
Tom Kirk is the communications officer dealing with research in the arts, humanities, social sciences and technology. He has worked at the University since July 2006, before which he was a reporter with the Press & Journal newspaper in Scotland.
- Dr Graeme Rosenberg - HEFCE
Graeme Rosenberg is the REF Manager at the Higher Education Funding Council for England. He is responsible for developing and implementing the Research Excellence Framework, having run the bibliometrics pilot exercise and now the impact pilot exercise. HEFCE distributes public money to universities and colleges in England that provide higher education. As part of the new Research Excellence Framework (REF), the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), HEFCE has proposed that "significant additional recognition will be given where researchers build on excellent research to deliver demonstrable benefits to the economy, society, public policy, culture and quality of life." These proposals and details of a pilot study measuring research impact can
found here. HEFCE is currently assessing the results of a consultation exercise on the impact proposals and will be providing guidance on the REF to universities later this year.
- Dr Steven Wooding - RAND Europe
Steven Wooding is a Research Leader at RAND Europe and is currently working for various clients including the UK Department of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Heart Foundation of Australia. His work includes various projects in research evaluation and assessment and he has experience examining the use of science and technology in a variety of contexts - mainly relating to biomedical science, but he has also examined the impacts of social science (for the ESRC).
Steven led a case study based project, for the UK Arthritis Research Campaign, tracing the outcomes of a small sample of their research over 10-15 years. This led to follow on work to develop an output monitoring system that can be applied to all ARC grants. Previously Steve has done work for HEFCE on the attitudes of researchers towards the RAE and possible frameworks to assess impact in the REF. Steve has also looked at the issues surrounding the use of science and technology by the MoD, the procurement of complex IT projects by government and alternative methods of resource allocation in government. Steven is also responsible for running the peer review quality assurance system used by RAND to ensure the robustness of its research.
