UCU: Research impact assessment and policy research

Motion

Motion text: Conference notes and endorses the concerns expressed by:
a) science and technology researchers that funding on the basis of impact will discourage basic research
b) humanities researchers that the impact of their work is not reducible to instrumentalist measures
Conference notes that research, particularly in social and public policy fields, that supports current Government strategy is more likely to be adopted and thus show demonstrable impact. Conference is alarmed that measurement of impact of policy research will discourage oppositional and critical research and lead to conformity and loss of academic freedom.
Conference instructs HEC to contact academic professional bodies concerned with policy research to initiate a joint campaign to highlight these threats to academic freedom and the likely curtailment of informed public debate.