British grant applicants will have to demonstrate the economic or social impact of their research, according to new funding rules rolled out by Research Councils UK (RCUK), the umbrella body for all of Britain's seven research councils.

The "impact summary," which requires grant seekers to answer questions about the wider benefits of their research, was implemented today (Jan. 15) by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Other funding bodies, including the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), will follow suit in the coming months. The Medical Research Council (MRC), which operates under a different system, was unaffected by the decision.

"The change is to underline our 'excellence with impact' agenda," Chloë Somers, a media spokesperson with RCUK, told The Scientist. "We recognize the fact that researchers are already doing this but we want to make it easier for them."

Critics, however, argue that the initiative pushes academic research closer to a corporate model, and that it could hurt blue-skies research initiatives.

"To try and make predictions about the impact of a piece of research in the early stages is going to be extremely difficult," Nick Dusic, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, told The Scientist. "Most researchers won't know what the societal or economic benefit will be until after [the research] has been done, and there could be unforeseeable benefits that weren't anticipated when the research project started."

Philip Esler, chief executive of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and the leader of RCUK's policy on economic impact, disagreed. "We're not trying to in any way divert researchers from doing excellent research," he told the Times Higher Education Supplement. "We want them to continue to do that, and we want to encourage them to produce other benefits. We believe they will have more fulfilling careers if they do."

"Excellent research without obvious or immediate impact will continue to be funded by the Research Councils and will not be disadvantaged within the assessment process," the RCUK wrote in a statement.


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