LIST OF PANELS

Governments around the world have made significant investments in the assessment of publicly funded research. Research policy in the UK, Australia, Hong Kong and several other nations, now includes a focus on the ‘impact’ of research (i.e. relevance to external actors, public value or societal benefit). This is an expansion to assessments of ‘quality’ or excellence, which prioritise academic merit and attempt to capture the value of new knowledge. What is regarded as valuable research has been shifting in science policy and research practice, driven by multiple factors, including the desire to demonstrate ‘value for money’ in funding universities and research institutes, rising scepticism about the worth of the research they produce, and increasing levels of populism which question science and expertise and portray research and researchers as elite and irrelevant. These changes are producing significant changes in national research policy trajectories and reducing the autonomy of individual universities in terms of their strategy, and more tightly directing academics in terms of the research they pursue.

In this panel, we are interested in uncovering the values that underpin national research policies, the effects of the assessments on research cultures and practices, and emerging forms of worth in research systems. We welcome papers that explore emerging components of science(research) policy, such as a growing focus on research impact. We are interested in analyses of national approaches which are used to assess the scholarly and societal impact of research by universities, research councils and other funders, and governments.

We invite papers on the following questions but will consider any papers (theoretical, empirical, case studies, comparative studies, etc.) that address the topic of science policy, research assessment systems, research practices, and societal impact:

1. How is science policy changing in terms of how research is valued and what types of research is privileged?

2. How does societal impact feature as a component of science(research) policy in individual nations, regions, or internationally?

3. What approaches are being used to assess ‘valuable’ research in different nations, by national governments, universities, national research councils and other funders?

4. How has policymaking been used to expand the components of research assessment, and to change the direction of research cultures and practices?

5. What effects (positive and negative) could be expected from different approaches to valuing research?