Bloomsbury Research Impacts

This series seeks to develop and critically reflect on the conceptualization and practice of ‘research impact’, a concept so prevalent and yet so loosely understood in contemporary higher education institutions. Meaningful research impact is impossible without a deep engagement with the non-academic sector. It requires partnering with the societal actors (such as communities, NGOs, charities, private actors, religious leaders, practitioners, scientific organisations) who work directly on the ground, possess in-depth knowledge and are the ones who make things happen. Publications, however, focus too often on academic research as the sole source of knowledge, or are written from a single perspective – namely, that of academic researchers engaging with the non-academic sector, their experiences, successes and failures of doing so. The voices of the societal actors who played crucial roles in adapting the research to the ‘real world’ are frequently absent. What is also often absent is an honest engagement with cultural and political dynamics that play out in engaged scholarship, knowledge exchange and ultimately research impact in myriad ways. This series aims to redress this by moving away from a conception of impact as defined and claimed by academics to an understanding of impact as jointly developed and built by academic and non-academic actors. It systematically involves non-academic contributors in the writing and reviewing of books about collaborative research projects; and it draws lessons about measuring and evaluating research impact for the benefit of researchers and practitioners.