There are unfolding crises in government funding and support for higher education in the US and UK. Highlighting the parallels between these crises, Jana Bacevic argues the only available response to academics is to organise around their shared interests. It is a rare moment when universities in the UK look at their counterparts in the … The post Parallel crises in US and UK higher education signal a major restructuring of academic labour first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Ed Stevens and Nayana Dhavan explore the case for activist-in-residence (AiR) programmes and how best to foster their impact. As universities up and down the UK re/discover their civic purpose, new spaces for engagement are emerging such as that offered through activist-in-residence (AiR) programmes. In such programmes, activists are institutionally hosted – usually by research … The post How to make university activist-in-residence programmes work first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Do social unicorns exist? Kieron Boyle sets out the ambition of the 100x Impact Accelerator to impact hundreds of millions of lives and discusses what this project can teach us about scaling research and social impact. At LSE we are committed to “understanding the causes of things.” For decades, research has contributed to understanding the … The post What the search for a social unicorn tells us about scaling impact first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Discussing a tendency in contemporary politics to reduce issues to questions of scientific measures of climate change, Mike Hulme argues for more diverse understandings of climate and change and its impacts on society. Mike Hulme discussed his research on climatism as part of his lecture, ‘Epistemic Pluralism and Climate Change’ at LSE on 10 March … The post Is the quest for net-zero a form of scientism? first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

From 2021-2023 the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) piloted a series of policy fellowships aimed at establishing best practices in research to policy relationships. Jessica Benson-Egglenton and Matthew Flinders assess how far these aims were met and what the programme reveals about the wider research to policy landscape in the UK. In 2021, the ESRC … The post Have ESRC’s policy fellowships been effective? first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Following the election of Donald Trump, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, including those focused on gender equality, have become highly politicised. Taking stock of these changes in the higher education sector, Emily Yarrow, Julie Davies and Trang Dinh discuss the fault lines of this conflict and point to the Nordic model as a source of … The post International Women’s Day – Accelerating action or holding the line? first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Why do academics engage in practitioner collaborations and how does this shape their research and its wider impact? Armine Ishkanian assesses the impact of a major academic practitioner project and suggests greater recognition is needed for the different types of knowledge and outcomes they produce. Over the past two decades research collaborations between academics and … The post Academic practitioner collaborations can tackle persistent knowledge inequalities, but they need recognition first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Open access repositories are integral to open research practices and the democratisation of knowledge. A google scholar search will often link those without access to published versions to a version made available by a repository. However, as Frédérique Bordignon shows, they have a critical blind spot: their frequent failure to effectively show corrections and retractions … The post Open repositories cannot ignore retractions and corrections first appeared on Impact of Social Sciences ..read more

Commercial platforms and social media companies are designed to maximise switching costs in order to retain users. Reflecting on the rise of Bluesky, Mark Carrigan warns the same market dynamics could ensnare academic Bluesky users.   After the US election there was a significant drop in users of Elon Musk’s now politicised X. There’s a ..read more

Investment in Big Science projects, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, are often seen as purely scientific ventures. Riccardo Crescenzi argues a more co-ordinated approach to Big Science across the UK and European Union could produce significant social and economic benefits, as well as catalysing innovation and increased competitiveness across the bloc. Riccardo ..read more