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The Research Assessment Exercise was reviewed in 2002. This seminar report concluded that research should be assessed using a system based on peer review; the system should have clear rules and transparent procedures; and that there was a need for improved systems to assess inter- and multi-disciplinary research work.
This report, prepared for and funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc), presents the results of an evaluation of sixteen research grants awarded by arc in the early 1990s.
The Research Assessment Exercise is used to assess the quality of, and determine core government funding for, research carried out in UK universities. In 2002 this process was reviewed (http://www.ra-review.ac.uk). This report provided evidence for the review; it describes workshops that investigated the academic community's views of research quality and attitudes towards models of assessment. Nine facilitated workshops were held in December 2002, which involved 142 academics and research managers from throughout the UK. The report outlines the recurring themes and issues raised by the participants. Key findings were that the overwhelming majority of participants thought research should be assessed using a system based on peer review; that there was a strong desire for a system with clear rules and transparent procedures; and that there was a need for improved systems to assess inter- and multi-disciplinary research work.
This project explores the impacts arising from cardiovascular and stroke research funded 15-20 years ago and attempts to draw out aspects of the research, researcher or environment that are associated with high or low impact. The project is a case study-based review of 29 cardiovascular and stroke research grants, funded in Australia, Canada and UK between 1989 and 1993. The case studies focused on the individual grants but considered the development of the investigators and ideas involved in the research projects from initiation to the present day. Grants were selected through a stratified random selection approach that aimed to include both high- and low-impact grants. The key messages are as follows: 1. The cases reveal that a large and diverse range of impacts arose from the 29 grants studied. 2. There are variations between the impacts derived from basic biomedical and clinical research. 3. There is no correlation between knowledge production and wider impacts 4. The majority of economic impacts identified come from a minority of projects. 5. This report identified factors that appear to be associated with high and low impact. This report presents the full set of case studies.
This project explores the impacts arising from cardiovascular and stroke research funded 15-20 years ago and attempts to draw out aspects of the research, researcher or environment that are associated with high or low impact. The project is a case study-based review of 29 cardiovascular and stroke research grants, funded in Australia, Canada and UK between 1989 and 1993. The case studies focused on the individual grants but considered the development of the investigators and ideas involved in the research projects from initiation to the present day. Grants were selected through a stratified random selection approach that aimed to include both high- and low-impact grants. The key messages are as follows: 1. The cases reveal that a large and diverse range of impacts arose from the 29 grants studied. 2. There are variations between the impacts derived from basic biomedical and clinical research. 3. There is no correlation between knowledge production and wider impacts 4. The majority of economic impacts identified come from a minority of projects. 5. This report identified factors that appear to be associated with high and low impact. This report presents the full set of case studies.
This paper considers the continuing challenges facing research funders when trying to allocate research money. It focuses on the area of research policy in mental health research funding, with a particular emphasis on funding for schizophrenia research, and provides an overview of research policy in the last 20-25 years. It then goes on to consider what approaches funders could take to build an evidence base to support future decisions about funding. An earlier version of this paper was used to stimulate thinking prior to a workshop hosted by the Graham Boeckh Foundation in Montreal on 21 and 22 April 2009 to discuss these issues.
More than 95% of the £2 billion of public funding for medical research each year in the UK is allocated by peer review. Long viewed as a respected process of quality assurance for research, grant peer review has lately been criticised by a growing number of people within the scientific community and without. Detractors highlight its perceived inefficiency, and structural flaws that compromise its effectiveness in allocating funding. This report presents the findings of a wide-ranging literature review to evaluate these criticisms. It concludes with a short discussion of simple modifications to the peer review process that might help to address some of them. The research for the report was conducted with funding support from RAND Europe's Health R & D Policy Research Unit with the Department of Health (England). It is available in English only.
How partisanship, polarization, and medical authority stand in the way of evidence-based medicine The U.S. medical system is touted as the most advanced in the world, yet many common treatments are not based on sound science. Unhealthy Politics sheds new light on why the government's response to this troubling situation has been so inadequate, and why efforts to improve the evidence base of U.S. medicine continue to cause so much political controversy. This critically important book paints a portrait of a medical industry with vast influence over which procedures and treatments get adopted, and a public burdened by the rising costs of health care yet fearful of going against "doctor's orders." Now with a new preface by the authors, Unhealthy Politics offers vital insights into the limits of science, expertise, and professionalism in American politics.
The overarching objective of this book is to analyse the manner in which statebuilding-oriented research has and can influence policies in fragile, post-conflict environments. Large-scale, externally-assisted statebuilding is a relatively new and distinct foreign policy domain having risen to the forefront of the international agenda as the negative consequences of state weakness have been repeatedly revealed in the form of entrenched poverty, regional instability and serious threats to international security. Despite the increasing volume of research on statebuilding, the use and uptake of findings by those involved in policymaking remains largely under-examined. As such, the main themes ru...