ANNUAL REPORT 2010 - Loughborough University

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16 ‘ Our iMPACT ON ThE AgENdA research is revealing how adept IMCRC researchers and their industry partners are at traversing institutional and cultural boundaries when co-creating knowledge ’ PRoF. ANDy DAINTy AnnuAl RepoRt 2010 The government’s spending review and continuing preparations for the Research Excellence Framework has meant that the drive to assess the impact of research has stepped up a gear in recent months. < From left to Right: Prof. Andy Dainty; Dr Chris Stokes
Research councils have played an important role in moving impact assessment of research forward. This has been driven through the commission of impact evaluations of key research strands with the EPSRC, for example, investigating the impact of physics, chemistry and energy research and of the IMRC programme as a whole. However, the road to consistent research impact assessment is as yet unclear. Not the least of the obstacles is the need for a common method, which is acceptable to stakeholders, for reducing research in all its extravagant variety, into a form that can be easily weighed by assessors. Within the IMCRC, Prof. Andy Dainty and Dr Chris Stokes are undertaking leading research into the assessment of impact in this context. The project; ‘Diffusion and Transformational Impact of IMCRC Research (DTIIR)’, is geared in the first place to elucidating the impacts of the IMCRC itself. The resulting impact assessment framework will help in accurately reporting to the EPSRC on the impact that the IMCRC has made throughout its lifetime. The research has acknowledged the importance in recognising that impact may be realised well after the completion of a research project, may take on many different forms and benefit various types of stakeholder (some as unintentional beneficiaries of the work). It is therefore essential to examine both the direct and indirect benefits of research and to recognise the diverse range of contributions that are made. Understanding how IMCRC innovations diffuse within and across different organisational contexts is key in building a picture of the ‘whole-centre’ impact, and the capacity to inform and ultimately transform the firms that the IMCRC’s research intends to benefit. Through attention to the forms of collaboration exhibited by IMCRC projects, DTIIR has also contributed to the field of research concerned with the analysis of research impact in practice. Early work has revealed patterns of organisation through which engineering researchers and their nonacademic partners often manage to crisscross institutional and cultural boundaries with an ease that those within other fields would dearly like to emulate. The alignment between the DTIIR project and the EPSRC’s IMRC impact evaluation has resulted in the appointment of Prof. Dainty to the EPSRC panel overseeing the impact evaluation of the IMRC programme. This has enabled Andy and Chris to feed their cutting-edge research at Loughborough into the EPSRC’s overall assessment of IMRCs, ensuring the highest level of analysis. AnnuAl RepoRt 2010 17
Page 1 and 2: ANNUAL REPORT 2010 Innovative Manuf
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS Executive Summary 4 Advanc
Page 5 and 6: ESTABLiShEd iN 2001, the iMCRC has
Page 7 and 8: Highlights Prof. David Williams of
Page 9 and 10: Background The Additive Manufacturi
Page 11 and 12: Background Modern manufacturing is
Page 13 and 14: Background Construction, like other
Page 15 and 16: Background The sporting goods marke
Page 17: Background Current automation syste
Page 21 and 22: 185 219 214 223 263 298 AnnuAl Repo
Page 23 and 24: IMCRC Current RESEARCh ThEMES high
Page 25 and 26: 201 253 256 260 250 202 AnnuAl Annu
Page 27 and 28: IMCRC Current RESEARCh ThEMES Trans
Page 29 and 30: Steering group Membership external
Page 31 and 32: Project Title Start Date End Date T
Page 33 and 34: Name Start Date PhD Title Hannah Ed
Page 35 and 36: COLLABORATORS Industrial Collaborat

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