Presentation slides from the event Engaged Social Science: Impacts and use of research in the UK, given by Simon Bastow and Jane Tinkler.

1. #impactsocsci
with involvement from Raphaëlle Bisiaux, Leandro Carrera,
Sofia Goldschluk, Avery Hancock, Ellen Harries, Rebecca Mann,
Anne White, Sierra Williams and Joan Wilson

2. We needed a blueprint of the social sciences

3. External mediators
410k
625k
students
35k
academics
Research
staff
32k
People value
Value of mediation of social
science in the UK
£24.6bn
Indirect &
induced value
£4.8bn
University
spending
£2.7bn
Research
funded
£851m
Economic value
Source: LSE Public Policy Group, Cambridge Econometrics, and HESA, 2010-11

4. From old siloes... to ‘human-influenced’
and ‘human-dominated systems
STEM
Res.
funding
£4.8bn
80%
67k res.
staff
56%
53k res.
studs
Natural Systems
(e.g. astrophysics,
pure maths)
SS
Res.
funding
£851m
14%
32k res.
staff
27%
20k res.
studs
Human-influenced
Systems
(e.g. climate change)
HUM
£217m
4%
C&AD
15k res.
staff
8%
£110m
2%
13k res.
studs
6k res.
staff
4k res.
studs
SOCIAL
SCIENCES
And their
Human-dominated
integrative
systems
role.
(e.g. cities, markets,
information
systems)

5. Large corporations are already using social science
in an integrative way…
We can start to
answer the big and deep
questions that sociologists
ask but with statistical
rigour of large datasets
from computer science. I
think a lot of this is about
finding a commonality of
language which doesn’t
exist today.
Senior exec at Google…
We did the thing that
social science does
best, right? Which is not
to answer a particular
question, but to change
the way in which people
think about what the
questions are.
Senior exec at Intel…

6. Trade-off between academic and external impact
6
External visibility scale
5
communicator
7%
4
3
solid
middle
16%
applied
researcher
17%
2
1
0
0
Social media effect
publisher
27%
invisible
25%
1
influential
9%
2
3
4
5
Academic outputs scale
6

7. General level of difficulty
Do different sectors pose different
impact challenges?
Government &
public policy
High
Civil society &
third sector
Private sector
firms and
business
Low
1
Making
connections
with potential
partners or
users
2
3
Identifying a
‘quid pro quo’
in applying
research
Finding traction
for applying
research within
the organization
4
Building and
extending the
relationship
5
Demonstrating
specific
impacts or
benefits to the
organization