Research in context Dutch examples of multidimensional approaches – and the need for action research 2 | Leonie van Drooge Contenidos • Rathenau Instituut • Ciencia en Holanda • Relevancia o impacto social • Proyecto ERiC - Evaluando la investigación dentro de contexto • Proyecto SIAMPI - Interacciones Productivas • Proyecto Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso • Action research 3 | Leonie van Drooge Contenidos • Rathenau Instituut • Ciencia en Holanda • Relevancia o impacto social: • Proyecto ERiC - Evaluando la investigación dentro de contexto • Proyecto SIAMPI - Interacciones Productivas • Proyecto Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso • Action research 4 | Leonie van Drooge Misión del Instituto Rathenau El Instituto Rathenau promueve la opinión pública y política sobre la ciencia y la tecnología. Para ello, el instituto hace investigación sobre la organización y desarrollo del sistema de la ciencia (Science System Assessment), realiza publicaciones sobre el impacto social de las nuevas tecnologías (Technology Assessment) y organiza debates sobre temas y dilemas en el campo de la ciencia y la tecnología. El Instituto Rathenau es financiado por el Ministerio de Educación. Sin embargo, es independiente en la realización de sus actividades. 5 | Leonie van Drooge Science System Assessment – some projects • Resilient Knowledge Infrastructure • Future of Dutch universities • Non-academic public research institutes • Careers of scientists • Social contract of science • “Valorisation” or third mission, impact, relevance • (Public) attitudes towards science • (Research evaluation) • Innovation: • Globalisation • Regulation • Knowledge coproduction 6 | Leonie van Drooge Contenidos • Rathenau Instituut • Ciencia en Holanda • Relevancia o impacto social • Proyecto ERiC - Evaluando la investigación dentro de contexto • Proyecto SIAMPI - Interacciones Productivas • Proyecto Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso • Action research 7 | Leonie van Drooge Universities in the Netherlands • 9 comprehensive universities • 4 founded between 1575-1636; 5 founded1880-1976 • 8 with academic hospital • 3 technical universities (founded in 1842, 1956, 1961) • 1 agricultural university (founded in 1918) • Total # students enrolled: 240,159 • Total # academic staff : 28,252 (24,595 fte) of which # PhD students : 9,009 (8,706 fte) • Total revenue: € 5.8 billion euro (167 billion UYU) 8 | Leonie van Drooge More education and research in the Netherlands • Academic, non university, research institutes: • 17 KNAW institutes (governed by the royal academy) • 9 NWO institutes (geverned by the research council) • 38 “universities of applied sciences” • Teaching is main mission, research (relevant for profession/practice) is new and relative small secondary mission • 421,000 students • Total budget 2,5 billion euro 9 | Leonie van Drooge Excellent performance • # academic publications in 2010: 68,539 • Shanghai Jiao Tong Ranking: • all universities in top-500 • 2 universities in top-100 • THE Ranking: • all universities in top-300 • 4 universities in top-100 • ERC (European Research Council) – NL receives 9 % • FP7 (European Framework Programme for Research) – 7 % (NL contributes 5 % to European budget) 10 | Leonie van Drooge How about societal relevance / valorisation? • “Knowledge transfer for the benefit of – or towards – society” is official third mission of universities • Criterion in evaluation protocol for university research groups • Required by research council and European Commission • Efforts of Ministry of Economic Affairs (!) for > 30 years • Plus: current economic situation However: • Academic excellence has been focus for decades • What does relevance or valorisation mean and imply? 11 | Leonie van Drooge Contenidos • Rathenau Instituut • Ciencia en Holanda • Relevancia o impacto social • Proyecto ERiC - Evaluando la investigación dentro de contexto • Proyecto SIAMPI - Interacciones Productivas • Proyecto Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso • Action research 12 | Leonie van Drooge ERiC • Evaluando la investigación dentro de contexto • Colaboración entre la Asociación de Universidades, el Consejo de Investigación, la Real Academia de Ciencias de los Países Bajos y el Instituto Rathenau 13 | Leonie van Drooge ERiC • Describir la misión y los objetivos del grupo • Describir la contribución social que el grupo ha hecho 1. Los resultados que son o pueden ser de importancia para la sociedad 2. ¿Cómo se difunde el conocimiento entre las partes interesadas 3. La evidencia de interés o apreciación de las partes interesadas 4. Los efectos de los resultados tienen • Definir indicadores de relevancia social 14 | Leonie van Drooge ERiC Indicators for societal relevance of law research: • Papers in leading professional journals for fellow researchers and law professionals (in particular Nederlands Juristenblad) • Membership of national advisory committees on legal practice and policy • Work in legal practice • Post-academic education (required for practioners) Developed with researchers and administrators in law faculties 15 | Leonie van Drooge SIAMPI Métodos de Evaluación de Impacto Social de la investigación y los instrumentos de financiación a través del estudio de las interacciones productivas entre la ciencia y la sociedad 16 | Leonie van Drooge SIAMPI Interacciones productivas: • Personales (conversaciones, correspondencia, presentaciones, siendo miembros de comités) • Indirectamente: • A través de textos (artículos, protocolos, informes, reportes de asesoría, cuestionarios) • A través de artefactos (herramientas, sitios web, procesos) • Financieras (a través de contribuciones monetarias, en especie, o uso compartido de instalaciones) 17 | Leonie van Drooge SIAMPI • It is process-oriented, valuing the small but necessary steps in an intricate course of interactions • It is contextual, and takes into account the vital role of the contributions of researchers and stakeholders alike (in response to issues of time lag and attribution) • It is oriented towards learning and improving rather than judging and accounting • Additional value: • Concept of impact becomes more tangible • Rise of awareness with researchers and stakeholders concerning the value of their actions 18 | Leonie van Drooge Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso • Indicadores de valorización del conocimiento científico (divulgación y participación en la sociedad o transferencia de tecnología, transferencia del conocimiento, impacto social, intercambio del conocimiento) • Encargado por el Comité Nacional, junto con el Consejo de Investigación 19 | Leonie van Drooge Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso Idea básica: la valorización tiene cuatro dimensiones: 1. Actor - diferentes grupos son requeridos para la transferencia del conocimiento (proveedores de conocimiento, usuarios, intermediarios) 2. Nivel de Agregación - la responsabilidad y la oportunidad se distribuye entre los distintos niveles (institución, departamento o programa, persona o proyecto) 20 | Leonie van Drooge Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso Idea básica: la valorización tiene cuatro dimensiones: 3. Disciplina - para cada disciplina u ocupación existen diferentes formas de transferencia del conocimiento 4. Fase – la transferencia del conocimiento es un proceso que ocurre en todas las fases de la investigación, a través de la definición de la agenda, de la ejecución, hasta la difusión y uso del conocimiento 21 | Leonie van Drooge Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso 22 | Leonie van Drooge Base común para la evaluación (Base común para la evaluación de la transferencia del conocimiento): • Partiendo del objetivo de la unidad evaluada: La unidad evaluada indica lo que ha hecho para lograr el objetivo • Enfocándose en el proceso: queremos entender cómo se crea la transferencia del conocimiento: “It is only by analysing the processes that induce social impact that we have a chance of recognizing potential research impacts and the contributions made by research that might otherwise not be evident” (Spaapen & van Drooge 2011) • Yendo más allá de las coincidencias (de manera accidental) 23 | Leonie van Drooge Contenidos • Rathenau Instituut • Ciencia en Holanda • Relevancia o impacto social • Proyecto ERiC - Evaluando la investigación dentro de contexto • Proyecto SIAMPI - Interacciones Productivas • Proyecto Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso • Action research 24 | Leonie van Drooge The research questions Former projects as well as contacts with academic researchers and their managers have led to new questions: • what does relevance mean at all for academic groups or departments? • why is relevance a problem? what is the problem? • how to plan for relevance? As well as: • how can we develop approaches that, in the end, can be used without our involvement or presence? 25 | Leonie van Drooge Our involvement We are asked to participate, help and intervene in various settings, roles, forms: • institutional awaydays of university departments • development of impact strategies for projects, departments and disciplines • organisation of conferences / workshops • writing of grant applications • writing of self evaluation reports • development of indicators • expert role in discussions and interviews 26 | Leonie van Drooge Participation as a form of action research Our role is more than dissemination: • we need to participate in order to answer our research questions Also, we learn from our involvement whether our research questions are right – and find out some are not: • we have changed our question of “development of new ways to create an impact” into “what does relevance mean at all for a specific academic group or department” 27 | Leonie van Drooge A specific form of action research Approach chosen is similar to Huxham & Vagen (2003) • aim is to develop generic understanding – for use in other contexts as well • our participation should be of importance to all involved – and happens to be our way of doing research • our research questions are the reason to get involved and help us in deciding whether to participate (or not) – our involvement is driven by the other participants’ needs • no ideological perspective to empower participants – we accept the academic demands of relevance and excellence 28 | Leonie van Drooge The trouble with action research The process of research is difficult to manage • the interventions are initiated by researchers and their managers; we don’t plan interventions of a certain type, in a certain setting or at a certain time • each intervention is unique: each has a different context and a specific form that fits the researchers’ needs Also, we shouldn’t forget to focus on learning: • the interventions are a satisfying way to disseminate • we shouldn’t forget that our purpose is research 29 | Leonie van Drooge Capturing data We use a number of ways to gather information and to monitor our progressive insights: • we keep flipchart sheets, exercises, hand-outs, notes • we use evaluation forms and ask specifically about new insights and how they came about • we discuss the event afterwards with participants • we discuss events, developments, ideas and doubts frequently amongst ourselves, whether face-to-face or electronically • we capture thoughts by means of Yammer 30 | Leonie van Drooge Lessons learnt So far we have learnt: • we shouldn’t offer solutions straight away; in order to develop a sustainable vision on relevance / impact, questions are much more valuable than answers=>we focus on questions • nevertheless, concrete examples are helpful to illustrate possibilities; it helps getting from a more general and abstract notion to conceivable and feasible ideas=>this fall we will launch a website (in dutch) with a variety of examples • we share our experiences with others and actively involve them in our activities=>we train or coach people 31 | Leonie van Drooge Thank you! Dank u! ¡Gracias Leonie van Drooge senior researcher Rathenau Instituut [email protected] @LeonievanDrooge 32 | Leonie van Drooge Literature • Leonie van Drooge, Rens Vandeberg et al Valuable: Indicators for Valorisation. The Hague: Rathenau Institute, 2013 • Chris Huxham and Siv Vangen (2003): Researching Organizational Practice through Action Research: Case Studies and Design Choices. Organizational Research Methods 6 (3), 383-403 • De Jong, S.P.L., L.K. Hessels & B.J.R. van der Meulen: Societal Impact Analysis Next Generation Infrastructures. The Hague: Rathenau Instituut, SciSA report 1121 • Spaapen, J.B. and L. van Drooge (2011) Introducing 'productive interactions' in social impact assessment. Research Evaluation, 20, 211-218 33 | Leonie van Drooge Referencias • ERiC - Evaluating the societal relevance of academic research http:// www.rathenau.nl/en/publications/publication/evaluating-the-soc ietal-relevance-of-academic-research-a-guide-1.html • SIAMPI http://www.siampi.eu/Pages/SIA/12/625.bGFuZz1FTkc.html • Waardevol – Valuable – Valioso http:// www.rathenau.nl/publicaties/publicatie/valuable-indicators-for-va lorisation.html • SEP - Protocolo estandarizado de evaluación https:// www.knaw.nl/en/thematisch/kwaliteit/kwaliteitsbeoordeling-envalorisatie/overzicht?set_language=en 34 | Leonie van Drooge Knowledge coproduction for societal challenges Ensure that all stakeholders are represented in the project Choose not only participants who are close together Select participants with influence within their own organizations Involve experts in knowledge coproduction Create a "protected space" Take enough time to clearly formulate what should be investigated and resolved • Evaluate while project is running: is it still on track? • Work on small scale solutions first • Evaluate the knowledge co-production process • • • • • •