Original post
University of Salford’s Impact Coordinator – Chris Hewson discusses why we need to talk about research impact:
Over the last eighteen months, much has been written and said about impact, and how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can effectively, and efficiently, place themselves on a secure footing in preparation for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). Nonetheless, it could be argued that the fevered animation generated by REF2014 has led to a prolonged and ongoing hangover. For most academics and administrators the experience of co-producing impact case studies was a forensic and thought-provoking, albeit ‘seat of the pants’ and largely extemporised experience. The refrain consistently repeated in strategy offices across the land goes something like this: ‘…there is absolutely no chance we’re going to execute our REF impact strategy in such an unsystematic and post-hoc fashion come 2020.’
But we are, aren’t we? As Julie Bayley and Casper Hitchens note, “the burden of effort and pressure to ‘find impact’ led to impact fatigue and a tarnished view of the concept” [i]. Their remedies are sound, and were arrived at independently by a number HEIs of in the aftermath of 18th December 2014; the need for greater planning and (ongoing) data collection, the institutional normalisation of impact, the co-ordination of both internal and external engagement processes, and so forth. The authors playfully mimic the language of HEFCE, noting the dawning of “an opportunity to significantly and demonstrably… change how we achieve impact.”
A few weeks ago I clambered out of bed at 4.30am to attend the Coventry University Impact Summit. Once again, concerns around impact corroboration, shared goals, and the misalignment of scholarly and institutional drivers, were front and centre. True, HEI’s are caught in a holding pattern thanks to the hastily convened
Tags: impact, REF, Research Excellence, research impact, university of salford
Leave a comment

Congratulations to Criminology and Sociology lecturer Dr Anthony Ellis, who has been awarded the British Society of Criminology’s (BSC) ‘Critical Criminology Network book prize’ for his recently published monograph – Men, Masculinities and Violence: An Ethnographic Study (Routledge).
The award, sponsored by Palgrave Macmillan publishers, was presented to Dr Ellis at the British Society of Criminology Conference held 6th – 8th July 2016 in Nottingham, where he also received a £200 cash prize.
Tags: British Society of Criminology, BSC, Criminology, Dr Ellis, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, university of salford
Leave a comment

Last week, Professor Stanko Tomic, Chair in Photonics at the University of Salford, was elected a Chair of the IoP Semiconductor Physics Group.
Semiconductor physics is one of the major areas of condensed matter science and forms the core of modern solid-state device technology. The Institute of Physics‘ Semiconductor Physics Group was formed in 1982 in response to the need for a common forum for industrial and university researchers concerned with the physics, preparation and application of semiconducting materials and device structures. The group has a large membership with a broad range of backgrounds, often extending beyond physics to electronics, chemistry, and materials science.
Tags: Chair in Phototonics, IoP, physics, Professor Stanko Tomic, semiconductor, university of salford
Leave a comment
A major conference exploring disability and digital fabrication recently took place in the Digital Performance Lab at the University of Salford’s MediaCityUK campus. Over 50 delegates representing service users, technical experts, policy makers and leading charities came together to discuss the potential of digital fabrication to support economic, physical and mental well-being. 
The free one-day conference was organised by the University of Salford, the University of Dundee and Disability Rights UK. It was supported by Ultimaker GB Ltd, a leading manufacturer of 3D printers, with demos and design clinics running all day. The conference was also supported by Shaw Trust, which provided an access fund to help support the needs of delegates. It was the final event of the AHRC-funded ‘In the Making’ project, and the conference heard findings from the project, which has been taking 3D scanners and 3D printers out to the neighbourhoods of Salford and involving the city’s disabled people in the use of this new digital technology. http://www.inthemaking.org.uk/conference/
Principal investigator Dr Ursula Hurley said: “As technologies like 3D printers become more widely available, we are developing the ability to make almost anything we can think of. This is where the imagination becomes important. How do we find new ways of doing new things? What are the possibilities of this technology? How might it change lives for the better? It’s really about ideas, innovation, experimentation, looking at things from different points of view. The ‘In the Making’ project is a wonderful opportunity to see just how creative we can be in developing our understanding of the technology. We’re really looking forward to developing the findings presented at our conference.”
Tags: 3D printers, conference, digital, disability, economic, performance lab, policy makers, technology, Ultimaker, university of salford
Leave a comment
A week on from the referendum its time to take stock and grapple with a key question: Why was the referendum result such a surprise? Professor Karl Dayson, University of Salford, discusses:
Previous referendums around the world tend to drift back to status quo so most experts anticipated a Remain win (guilty as charged here). When polled by Opinium on the 22nd June the majority of the population expected Remain to win. Clearly Nigel Farage thought Remain was going to win, exemplified by his hokey-cokey concede/unconcede act throughout the night. And from Sarah Vine’s diaries in the Daily Mail its clear Michael Gove thought Remain would win:
‘You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off,’ I said, in my best (i.e. not very good) Michael Caine Italian Job accent. In other words, you’ve really torn it now.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3665146/SARAH-VINE-Victory-vitriol-craziest-days-life.html#ixzz4D38vNdCX
Yet, with hindsight, the evidence was all there that Remain were going to struggle. A YouGov poll on the 18th June found that 51% didn’t believe that the Remain campaign understood the concerns of ordinary people (only 30% said it did). By contrast 46% felt that the leave campaign was more in touch (only 35% argued it wasn’t). On a 21st June YouGov poll the Leave campaign was seen as more honest and more positive. While the BBC TV debate on the 21st June was also seen as win for Leave. Neither did the Remain campaign’s warnings (the
Tags: brexit, campaign, country, leave, referendum, remain, university of salford
Leave a comment