Charlotte Johnson

Beyond Academia – Interrogating Research Impact in the Research Excellence Framework

Big changes to the way in which research funding is allocated to UK universities were brought about in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), overseen by the Higher Education Funding Council, England. Replacing the earlier Research Assessment Exercise, the purpose of the REF was to assess the quality and reach of research in UK universities–and allocate funding accordingly. For the first time, this included an assessment of research ‘impact’, accounting for 20% of the funding allocation. In this article we use a text mining technique to investigate the interpretations of impact put forward via impact case studies in the REF process. We find that institutions have developed a diverse interpretation of impact, ranging from commercial applications to public and cultural engagement activities. These interpretations of impact vary from discipline to discipline and between institutions, with more broad-based institutions depicting a greater variety of impacts. Comparing the interpretations with the score given by REF, we found no evidence of one particular interpretation being more highly rewarded than another. Importantly, we also found a positive correlation between impact score and [overall research] quality score, suggesting that impact is not being achieved at the expense of research excellence.

Correction: Beyond Academia – Interrogating Research Impact in the Research Excellence Framework

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168533.].

PICKS: Exploring Post-disciplinary knowledge in a university's urban sustainability research landscape

This article presents PICKS (Post dIsCiplinary Knowledge Space), a research mapping prototype developed to support cross-disciplinary research into urban sustainability. PICKS is an interactive map of researchers and their research interests, which combines self-reported and institutionally generated data within a framework that demonstrates the epistemic communities existing across the traditional disciplinary divisions. The force-directed graph visualization, prototyped both in Processing and d3.js, offers a novel way to interrogate cross-disciplinary research interests and identify potential networks for collaboration. This article outlines the development of the prototype by discussing the process of research mapping, and describes the results in the context of strengthening a cross-discipline research environment within a university. The article focuses specifically on the field of urban sustainability research, but the approach offers insights into Mode 2 research and the multidisciplinary programs that are becoming increasingly important as universities tackle the urgent questions of sustainability.

Development of LCA Calculator to support community infrastructure co-design

PurposeLCA tools are increasingly used to support decision making. However, the current generation of tools is mainly targeted at users with significant background in industrial and environmental processes. This paper presents a novel process of developing the LCA Calculator with inputs from community members embedded in a co-design process. It demonstrates how engineering tools can be developed by considering end-user perspectives and used to communicate systems thinking in infrastructure co-design.MethodsThe process of the LCA Calculator development was informed by the outcomes of community engagement through the co-design process. The method consists of four parts including horizon scanning of suitable technology options, LCA modelling, development of the LCA Calculator and pilot testing of the Calculator with residents from the selected case study community. The case study community are residents of a social housing estate in central London. The estate has a total of 123 flats arranged in three low-rise blocks with shared gardens and courtyards. Three technology options—wormery composting, rainwater harvesting and urban food growing—were used to illustrate the LCA methods and test the Calculator development.Results and discussionThe Calculator developed in this project pushes the boundaries beyond expert users to develop a new generation of LCA tools for a wider range of decision makers. The LCA results were communicated using the LCA Calculator in a workshop as part of the co-design process. The communication process was supported by the visual language of the Calculator, information sheets of the technology options and community members’ involvement in the process of the Calculator development. The Calculator provided a solid base on which sustainable design discussions could happen. It provided to the participants valuable insights into the scale of material flow given different design choices—such as the amount of waste generated over a month or the irrigation requirements of a raised bed—and environmental impacts of these options.ConclusionsA prototype version of an LCA Calculator software tool has been developed to enable rapid assessment of conceptual design of engineering systems. The LCA Calculator was successfully tested at a community workshop, enabling clear engagement between engineering design choices and resource and environmental impacts. The Calculator facilitated a two-way exchange between community members and infrastructure designers that embeds end-user perspectives in the design and implementation of the infrastructure they use, taking into account lifecycle impacts of technology and material options.