UK's largest research council commissions a study on the impact of its funded work

The EPSRC (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council), the UK's largest research council, has published a study it commissioned on the impact of the work it funds. The study was commissioned from Evidence (part of Thomson Reuters) and was carried out using Thomson Reuters' Web of Science database. Impact was measured in terms of citations to papers published from EPSRC-funded projects.

 

Notwithstanding the fact that some may question the methodological approach, this study is significant in that it is an early example of things to come. Funders are increasingly interested in measuring the impact of the work they fund and EPSRC has set the ball rolling with this empirical study.

 

In some countries, universities are being asked to think along the same lines about the work carried out in their research programmes. The Open Access citation advantage, and the repositories that provide that, will attract increasing attentionagainst this background.