POCARIM policy brief : Impact, contribution and engagement of PhD graduates in social science and humanities

Impact has traditionally been assessed in terms of academic impacts, based largely on publications in peer-reviewed journals and citations. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the impact of research on society at the national and European level. Funding bodies, such as the European Framework Programmes and UK research councils, have increasingly made impact a criteria for obtaining funding. This has increased with a focus on prioritising funding related to grand challenges in the EU and the UK. In the UK, impacts are being included in the Research Excellence Framework, which evaluates the quality of academic departments. Measuring impact has proved difficult. Even where academics are engaged with society, it is extremely difficult to assess the impact of these activities – in particular in the social sciences and humanities, where impacts are likely to be conceptual. This reports considers:(1) The extent to which SSH PhD holders seek to impact on society as opposed to impacting mainly in academia;(2) The range of engagement activities and stakeholders on whom the interviewees seek to impact;(3) The extent to which these various types of ‘engagement’ activities have an impact