What is the impact of BEAMS research? An evaluation of REF impact case studies from UCL BEAMS

The genesis of the ‘impact agenda’ in the UK can be traced back to the Thatcher government, which required all public expenditure to be scrutinised, to demonstrate ‘value for money’ and to show ‘efficiency, effectiveness, and economy’. A 1993 white paper, “Realising our potential”, detailed this stance with reference to higher education more specifically, although prior work evaluating the impact of higher education on the economy exists (McNicoll 1993). Within universities in the UK, the impact agenda has taken the form of evaluation of academic practice and output. The latest round of the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), which assesses the quality of research generated by UK Higher Education Institutions included a section for academics to provide evidence of their impact on policy, industry or practice. These are referred to as ‘impact case studies’, and consist of a description of the research, and of the process through which this led to impact beyond academia. These developments point to a need to capture impact, and to categorise the different impact types, beneficiaries and pathways to impact in order to monitor and support academics in this process. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Impact Acceleration Grant project, hosted at the UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (UCL STEaPP) (thereafter referred to as the STEaPP Impact Project) is a study examining the extent to which and the means by which research undertaken in UCL Departments within the Faculties of the Bartlett, Engineering, and Maths and Physical Sciences (BEAMS) has had or could have an impact on relevant public policy within the UK. As the name suggests, BEAMS academics carry out research on the built environment, architecture, engineering, mathematics and physical sciences. The STEaPP Impact Project aims to map prior and on-going UCL research within BEAMS that impacts or could impact on public policy organisations with science/engineering-relevant portfolios in the UK. The project aims to mapUCL research against central government engineering policy interests and work closely with central government departments (such as the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Transport), the Royal Academy of Engineering and EPSRC staff to produce useful models to enable improved interaction of UCL research with these audiences. This will be achieved through a stakeholder symposium in Summer 2015, at which the results of the qualitative and quantitative analysis will be presented. Representatives of governmental departments and engineering institutions will be invited, along with other policy and private sector actors identified through the case studies and interviews. Academics from BEAMS and related departments will also be invited to participate. Using participatory and collaborative methods we will use this symposium to develop a set of guides for best practice in impact promotion and assessment for UCL and related audiences