RESEARCH IMPACT CONFERENCE 16TH JULY 2009

 

 RESEARCH IMPACT CONFERENCE 16TH JULY 2009

  11am – 4pm at the Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London EC1 8LX

A major conference to consider the applicability of Research Impact measurement to the Social Sciences

Organised by the Academy of Social Sciences at the request of its member learned societies

Programme

11.00 Why Impact Is Important Chaired by Barbara Doig AcSS

Professor Phil Cowley, AcSS - Research Impact: a view from government.

Phil Cowley AcSS is Professor of Parliamentary Government, University of Nottingham and was recently seconded to the Government Social Research Unit based in HM Treasury. He holds several external awards for research into widening participation and runs the website www.revolts.co.uk which is utilised by all major news organisations as well as widely within Westminster and Whitehall. He is a frequent media commentator.

 

Graeme Rosenberg – Research Impact: a view from HEFCE

Graeme Rosenberg is the REF Project Manager at HEFCE and is currently developing proposals for how the impact of research will be assessed in the REF.

 

Dr Phil Sooben - Research Impact: a view from the ESRC.

Phil Sooben is ESRC Director of Policy and Administration. He is also a member of the HEFCE Expert Advisory Group involved in the development of the REF.

 

Professor Chris Bellamy AcSS - Research Impact: a view from the academy

Christine Bellamy AcSS is Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at Nottingham Trent University. She was a member of the ESRC Research Evaluation Committee whilst it worked on the methodology of evaluating impact. She also carried out the end of programme evaluation of the ESRC Whitehall Programme, which included evaluating impact.

 

13.15 Lunch

14.00 Issues, Methodologies and Evidence Chaired by Professor Irene Hardill AcSS

The speakers will consider issues, methodologies and evidence in the evaluation of impact from differing perspectives and draw on several case studies from the social sciences and other disciplines, which are relevant on a generic basis.

Professor Elliot Stern AcSS

Elliot Stern AcSS is a practicing evaluator working with UK, European and international clients and holds a part time chair as Professor of Evaluation Research at the University of Lancaster. He is a past President of the UK and European Evaluation Societies and edits the journal 'Evaluation: the international journal of theory, research and practice', published by Sage UK.

 

Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby AcSS

Peter Taylor-Gooby AcSS is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent and Director of the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk network. He is a Founding Academician of ALSiSS, later the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the RSA, recent President of the Sociology and Social Policy section of the BAAS, co-director of the Risk Research Centre, 2008 onwards, Beijing Normal University, State-appointed Visiting Foreign Expert to China 2008-11 and Chair of the Social Policy and Social Work Research Assessment Exercise Panel.

 

Dr Steven Wooding

Steven Wooding is a Research Leader, Science and Technology, of RAND Europe, an independent think-tank concerned with improving policy making and finding public-private solutions to shared problems. He is currently working in the areas of research evaluation, science policy and public engagement with science with a particular recent interest in the quantification of qualitative information.

 

16.00 Closing comments and finish

Why you should attend

Hear the latest thinking on Research Impact from the perspectives of funders, evaluators and grant applicants

Discover why funders consider impact important and what their assessments look for

Understand the arguments between metrics, longitudinal and qualitative approaches to impact assessments

Consider the evidence from evaluation reviews of some projects

 

Learn how to increase your chances of making a successful research grant application

 

Tickets are priced at £90 for the open category of attendee and £65 for Academicians, Affiliates and members of learned societies which are themselves members of the Academy.

A booking form is attached.

It can also be downloaded from the Academy’s website: www.acss.org.uk

http://www.ehs.org.uk/ehs/Noticeboard/Assets/RIProg2009.pdf