Documenting Impact: An Impact Case Study of Anthropological Collaboration in Tobacco Control

Abstract

The inclusion of 'impact' as an element in the latest iteration of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the U.K. government's ongoing programme to assess the quality of research in higher education, caught some academics by surprise. It reflects global trends towards changing governance arrangements and increasing accountability in higher education, which has involved in its turn a move from assessing the quality of research per se towards an increasing interest in its effects (as encapsulated by the term 'impact') on wider society. In the U.K., 'impact' in this sense is defined by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) as 'an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia' (HEFCE 2011: 26, 42). The impacts of research on the advancement of academic knowledge within the higher education sector itself, and on learning and teaching are explicitly excluded, although their importance is acknowledged in other official documents such as the U.K. Research Councils' 'Pathways to Impact' (RCUK n.d.). Impact (in REF terms) is important to universities in the U.K. because it comprises 20 per cent of the total score that each department (or 'Unit of Assessment') can achieve from its REF submission. The other two parts are 65 per cent based on the top four academic works produced by each submitted member of academic staff, and 15 per cent on 'research environment' (e.g. support provided for researchers, seminar programmes, training opportunities, and PhD student