The many ways of academic researchers: How is science made useful?

Staffan Jacobsson, Eugenia Perez Vico and Hans Hellsmark

Science and Public Policy, 2014, vol. 41, issue 5, 641-657

Abstract: In assessing the performance of academic research, there is a growing interest in combining excellence with impact criteria. A frequently encountered belief is that impact should be understood in terms of new firms and patents. Others argue that academic R&D generates impacts that greatly exceed such commercialization efforts by academic researchers. The tension between these two beliefs reveals a risk that the criteria for assessing the impact of academic R&D, including criteria for allocating performance-based funding, may neglect vital aspects of how science is made useful. With insights gained from a comprehensive analysis of a well-reputed academic body, Chalmers Energy Initiative, we address this risk with the aim of contributing to the eventual design of an evidence-based science policy with appropriate evaluation routines.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/sct088 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:scippl:v:41:y:2014:i:5:p:641-657.

Access Statistics for this article

Science and Public Policy is currently edited by Nicoletta Corrocher, Jeong-Dong Lee, Mireille Matt and Nicholas Vonortas

More articles in Science and Public Policy from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().