Impact in interdisciplinary and cross‐sector research: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Impact is embedded in today's research culture, with increasing importance being placed on the value of research to society. In interdisciplinary and cross-sector projects, team members may hold distinct views on the types of impact they want to create. Set in the context of an interdisciplinary, cross-sector project comprised of partners from academia, industry, and the nonprofit sector, our paper unpacks how these diverse project members understand impact. Our analysis shows that interdisciplinary projects offer a unique opportunity to create impact on a number of different levels. Moreover, it demonstrates that a lack of accountable design and collaboration practices can potentially hinder pathways to impact. Finally, we find that the interdisciplinary perspectives that such projects introduce encourage a rich gamut of sustainable outcomes that go beyond commercialization. Our findings support researchers working in these complex contexts to appreciate the opportunities and challenges involved in interdisciplinary cross-sector research contexts while imparting them with strategies for overcoming these challenges. IntroductionIn recent years, policy makers and funders are asking researchers to provide evidence of how their research benefits the wider public (European Commission, 2014; National Research Council, 2012; Research Councils UK [RCUK], 2014). This is formalized through revised funding processes that require them to anticipate and articulate who will benefit from their research and in what ways. National and international funding bodies-including the European Commission (EC), RCUK, and the National Science Foundation (NSF)-now all include impact as a key component of their grant proposals (European Commission, 2014;RCUK, 2014; The National Science Foundation, 2014).Although such mechanisms are relatively new, assessing the impact of research has always been important. Donovan (2008) and Jackson, Steinhardt, and Buyuktur (2013) explain how the earliest measurement for establishing research impact was the peer-review process. External imperatives, however, have since broadened our understanding of impact from a concern to produce scholarly knowledge to one that also seeks to impact all levels of society. The imperatives provoking these changes include transparency as to how public funding is spent while ensuring that investment results in meaningful returns to taxpayers (Donovan, 2008;Penfield, Baker, Scoble, & Wykes, 2014), enhancing economic competitiveness (Donovan, 2008), creating public value to society (Donovan, 2008), directing research funding to areas of national interest (Donovan, 2008, Penfield et al., 2014, assessing the performance of research groups (Boaz, Fitzpatrick, & Shaw, 2009), and establishing accountable research practices in line with promoting positive outcomes (Boaz et al., 2009). Early attempts of funders to introduce a broader impact component to research were premised on the notion that the purpose of science is to support a country's economy and should be chiefly captured t...

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