Real impact is about influence, meaning and value: Mapping contributions for a new impact agenda in the humanities.

The humanities are driven both by epistemological and normative interests in a range of topics resulting in a complex topography of the public value of the humanities. But for the most part, its diffuse knowledge and impact has been defined and restricted to inputs and outputs. David Budtz Pedersen presents an overview of a research project aiming to reveal the pathways of humanities research deeply integrated in the functioning and affluence of modern liberal societies

Overhyped and concentrated investments in research funding are leading to unsustainable science bubbles.

David Budtz Pedersen examines how the scientific market exhibits bubble behaviour similar to that of financial markets. Taking as an example the overwhelming investments in neuroscience, such high expectations may actually drain the research system from resources and new ideas. In the end the permanent competition for funding and the lack of ‘risk diversification’, might generate a climate in which citizens and policymakers lose their confidence in science as they did with the financial sector after the 2008 crash

Towards characterising negative impact:Introducing Grimpact

This paper categorises the nature of what we have labelled as the potential for ‘GrImpact’, in the evaluation of the wider influence of research, beyond academia. As the impact agenda broadly defined grows to include more formally criteria that consider the value of research beyond academia, so too does the pressure to ensure that these assessments of public value are conducted with the public’s best interests in mind. In many cases, any negative impact from research cannot be foreseen at the time of the evaluation, making it vital that any kinds of rewards for impact stimulate only positive public benefits (aka “the right type” of impact). Using a series of case studies of identified “negative impact” this paper explores the concept of Grimpact, as well as creates typologies of its characteristics and precursors