Growing_the_Best_and_Brightest._The_Drivers_of_Research_Excellence

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Growing the best and brightest March 2014 Drawing on a combination of the existing literature and interviews with 51 academics in 12 of the UK’s leading institutions we find: (i) the activities supporting the recruitment, development and motivation of researchers are critical drivers of research excellence; (ii) the activities relating to collaborating with others, creating and implementing research strategies, securing a mix of funding and responding to competitive pressures are also seen as important by interviewees; and (iii) in relation to many of these activities, our research emphasises that the “on-theground” or “day-to-day” initiatives by individual researchers can be at least as important as the “high-level strategic” initiatives instigated by institutions.
Growing the best and brightest March 2014 The UK research base is among the most efficient in the world. A recent report written by Elsevier for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) shows that the UK accounts for 9.5% of downloads, 11.6% of citations and 15.9% of the world’s most highlycited articles and has overtaken the US to rank 1 st by field-weighted citation impact. This has been achieved with 0.9% of global population, 3.2% of R&D expenditure, and 4.1% of researchers. 1 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are an important part of the research base and we were asked by BIS to undertake a study to help develop its understanding of the drivers of research excellence in such UK institutions. Specifically, BIS wanted us to look beyond funding levels and path dependency as drivers of research excellence and instead to focus on the in practice features and practices prevalent in HEIs (e.g. institution autonomy, recruitment practices, culture) that support research excellence. Put simply, the primary objective of this study is to understand the practical things that UK HEIs do with the resources they have to help create excellent research. This is not to say that the level or organisation of funding is unimportant – clearly it is very important – but it is not the focus of this study. The results will be used to help BIS decide how it should best deliver its responsibility for maintaining and building on current levels of excellence in research. We approached this study from the viewpoint of “competitive advantage”. Studying the sources of competitive advantage involves understanding what an organisation does differently to give it a competitive edge over another and, relatedly, how that competitive edge can be maintained where rivals have strong incentives to erode it by “mimicking” or “outdoing”. The academic literature on competitive advantage identifies two overarching sources of competitive advantage: superior efficiency and differentiation. To help understand the sources of competitive advantage in HEIs, we did two things. » In the first stage of this study we undertook a review of the existing literature on the drivers of research excellence. Where relevant, we also considered the existing literature about what firms do “on-theground” to create a competitive advantage. » The second stage of this study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with 51 academics in 12 of the UK’s leading universities. The purpose of this stage was to deliver an evidence-based understanding of which of the long-list of drivers identified through the literature review were seen by HEIs as particularly important, and how they work in practice. Our sample of 12 institutions – 7% of the 163 UK HEIs – accounts for: £680m (35%) of research grants from Funding Bodies (e.g. HEFCE); £600m (40%) of Research Council grants; and £2.4bn (37%) of the total £6.4bn of research income. 2 A consistent result across all of our interviews is, unsurprisingly, that the primary driver of research excellence is excellent researchers. Therefore, the activities supporting the recruitment, development and motivation of researchers are highlighted by this research as critical drivers of research excellence. In particular, the following practices appear to be particularly important as evidenced by the existing literature and the views and efforts of interviewees: the evaluation of potential (internal and external) recruits – for example, checks and processes to ensure “plurality” and to avoid the risk of recruiting too many individuals “like us”; and informal and formal mentoring and appraisal arrangements – for example, striking the right balance between offering guidance and preserving researcher autonomy, knowing when to encourage a researcher to persevere or re-think and so on. In addition, the activities relating to collaborating with others, creating and implementing research strategies, securing a 1 BIS (2013), “International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base – 2013”. 2 Based on HESA statistics relating to 2011/12. Total research income represents Funding Body grants for research, and research grants and contracts.
Page 1 and 2: Growing the best and brightest
Page 3: Growing the best and brightest Marc
Page 7 and 8: Growing the best and brightest Marc
Page 49 and 50: Growing the best and brightest Paro
Page 51 and 52: Growing the best and brightest to J
Page 53 and 54: Growing the best and brightest Titl
Page 55 and 56:
Growing the best and brightest Titl
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Growing the best and brightest The
Page 91 and 92:
Growing the best and brightest » A
Page 93 and 94:
Growing the best and brightest Univ
Page 95 and 96:
Growing the best and brightest Econ
Page 97 and 98:
Growing the best and brightest Topi
Page 99 and 100:
Growing the best and brightest Have
Page 101:
Growing the best and brightest Econ
show all

Growing_the_Best_and_Brightest._The_Drivers_of_Research_Excellence

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?