sarah parks, analyst, rand europe

Characteristics of high performing research units

Sarah Parks Research Impact conferenceJuly 2016 The Policy Institute at King’s

RAND Europe is an independent not-for-profit public policy research institute

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Aims of the study

• To plot the distribution of high performing submissions from the REF results across all main and sub panels, identifying distributiontrends

• To develop a sampling strategy to examine indepth the characteristics of units that produced high scoring submissions, drawing on REF submissions and additional sectoral data

• To determine what, if any, characteristics are shared between units that produced high scoring submissions

• To consider whether clustering of high performing units occur within institutions and, where present, examine common environmental and strategic characteristics of these units/institutions

• Identify aspects of characterisation that merit further investigation

The Policy Institute at King’s

Project schema


Caveats and limitations

• We have not examined the counter factual – ideally one would assess the absence of these characteristics from non-high performing submissions.

• Limitations with the quantitative data – based largely on HESA data so dependent on quality (and there are known inaccuracies)

• We found it hard to take interviewees from generic statements into providing us with specific detail that differentiated that submission (as opposed to the HEI as a whole). Also difficult to capture strategy since 2008 as HEIs are focusing on going forwards.

Hence is a ‘preliminary analysis’


Our sample achieved a good spread of institutions and disciplines

Good spread of

institutions and

disciplines


Outputs

Research

impact

We identified five key themes associated with high

performing research units…

People


Leadership, culture and values




Strategy and funding




Collaboration and networks




Institutional and departmental practice




…Which we organised into a conceptual model


People


A. In high-performing research units more of the staff have:

PhDs Professorial

positions

Externally

funded salaries

International

experience

Eligible category A staff

There is no statistically significant difference between

high-performing units and others in


Gender Academic teaching

qualification

Years at current HEI Age

Mode of working Ethnicity Senior management

holder

B. High-performing research units prioritise recruiting

the best and retaining them

• Identifying and recruiting the ‘best’

• Focus on early career researchers

• Well thought through incentives


Institutional and

departmental practice

• All offered training although scope of training varied across our sample

• Impact training – role of academic

engagement in this role

• Mentoring- Within department

- Spectrum of formality

‘

C. High-performing research units provide training

and mentorship programmes to develop staff



C. High-performing research units offer rewards

for strong performance

• Talent management seen

as a vital tool to maintain

impact and quality

• More productive to

incentivise rather than

penalise

Leadership,

culture and values

D. Staff within high-performing research units

display a distinct ethos of social and ethical values

• Importance of a shared value system

• Evolving research culture from bottom up

• Ways to share best practice and raise awareness of what high performance looks like:


Lunchtime

seminarsAwards

E. The leaders of high-performing research units have earned

‘accountable autonomy’ within their HEIs

• Leaders supporting cultures

- Often not aware of their abilities

- Particular qualities, such as supportive, visionary

• Leadership by example


Strategy and funding

F. High-performing research units have strategies that are real,

living and owned, and more than merely a written document


Strategies can create alignment

– Process is as important as the output

Role of strategic themes groups

– These are often themed across ‘grand challenges’

– Aim to cross discipline and facilitate interdisciplinary

responses to key global challenges

G. High-performing research units receive more income per

researcher than the average research unit


Collaboration

and networks

• Role of the individual in facilitating the collaboration

• Importance of partnering with high performers, rather than on geography

• Role of collaboration in enabling impact

H. High-performing research units enable and encourage

researchers to initiate collaborations organically as opposed to

using a top down approach


Concluding thoughts


Eight key hypothesis for further exploration


sarah parks, analyst, rand europe

Government & Nonprofit