1st Edition
Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher Lived Experiences, New Perspectives
Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher documents experiences and perspectives on the emerging concept of research impact from a range of disciplines and places them within an analytical and critical discursive framework. Combining personal reflections with research essays, it provides the reader with a multi-dimensional perspective on research impact and how it connects to the research lives and practice of early career researchers.
Research impact is playing an ever-increasing role in international research policy and government strategy. This book:
- Explores the arrival of impact into the national research consciousness
- Discusses how to build capacity and skills within research impact and how this might impact academic career progression in an international job market
- Offers advice on balancing national expectations with institutional expectations on research in terms of funding and career progression
- Offers suggested ways forward whilst actively challenging what constitutes research impact
Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher provides a much-needed research base for studies of research impact and the extent to which it has altered, changed, and influenced the research practice of early career academics. It is an essential guide for any new and early career researchers wishing to navigate the complex landscape in order to meaningfully contribute to the impact agenda.
Table of Contents
- Foreword
Julie Bayley
ii About this Book
Kieran Fenby-Hulse, Emma Heywood, Kate Walker
Iii Acknowledgements
iv List of Contributors
Section One: Research Impact and Me
Chapter One: Uncertainty and Confusion: The Starting Point of All Expertise
Ged Hall, Helen Morley and Tony Bromley
Reflection: Start Small, Think Big: The Hard Path to Success for the ECR
Kate Walker
Chapter Two: Developing an academic identity: What’s the time Mrs Wolf?
Tracy Hayes
Reflection: Reflexivity, doubt and social tensions in collaborative research as a foundation for positive research impact
Alex McDonagh
Chapter Three 3: Creative-Practice Research, Impact and the REF
Isabella Streffen
Reflection: Thinking Laterally: A Public Health Practitioner's View of Impact
Victoria Gilroy
Section Two: Research Impact and Collaboration
Chapter Four: Knowledge Exchange as Impact
Louise Maythorne
Reflection: Communicating Research to Policymakers
Diana Warira
Chapter Five: Experimenting with Interdisciplinarity: Researcher development and the production of impact
Robert Meckin and Sandrine Soubes
Reflection: Research impacts of engineering for society, with society
Anh Tran
Chapter Six: Connecting Epistemologies and the Early Career Researcher
Helen Graham, Katie Hill, Peter Matthews, Dave O’Brien and Mark Taylor
Reflection: Collaborative work of early career researchers: does the impact agenda transcend continents?
Anna Mary Cooper-Ryan, Alex M. Clarke-Cornwell, Jenna Condie
Section Three: Research Impact Systems and Structures
Chapter Seven: Propelled for take-off? The Case of Early Career Social Science Researchers in South Africa
Ke Yu, Ian Edelstein, Balungile Shandu
Reflection: International Impact: What is the problem? Can I solve it and will anyone benefit?
Emma Heywood
Chapter Eight: Doctoral Education and the Impact Gap: What we can learn from ‘Prof Docs’ and why it matters for Early Career researchers?
Smith-McGloin: Prof Docs
Reflection: Knowledge Transfer Partnership, the ECR, and the Humanities
Jessica Medhurst
Chapter Nine: Engaging with the Impact Ecosystem (Kieran Fenby-Hulse, Coventry University)
Reflection: Putting Social Responsibility at the Heart of the Institution: The Research Experience and Career Development of Early Career Researchers
R. L. Cowen, J. Gracey, D. Johnson
Biography
Kieran Fenby-Hulse is an Assistant Professor in Research Capability and Development at Coventry University, UK.
Emma Heywood is a Lecturer and Researcher in Journalism, Politics and Communication at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Kate Walker is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Advances in Behavioural Science at Coventry University, UK.