Walking the tightrope: Pursuing real-world impacts from research in an academic environmentDavid PannellCentre for Environmental Economics and PolicySchool of Agricultural and Resource Economics

For this PPT see www.davidpannell.net under “Talks”

Balancing act

Real-worldimpact

Academicimpact

What matters?

Academic impact· Sophistication

· Originality/innovation

· Citations

· Academic reputation

· Evidence/rigour

Real-world impact· Simplicity

· Usefulness/relevance

· Opinions of trusted others

· Trust, credibility, relationships

· Clarity, persuasiveness

Academic impact· ERA

· Assessed by established senior academics

· Usually value rigour over relevance

· Usually uni-disciplinary

· Journal quality (A*, A, B, C)

· Citations

· Academic reputation

Real-world impact· Growing interest

· Perception: we need to do better at convincing government about benefits of research

· ARC discussing how to include real-world impact in ERA

· UK’s Research Excellence Framework: 20% of funding based on “impact” from 2014.

Trial by universities, 2012· Group of Eight (Go8) and

Aust Technology Network of Universities (ATN)

· Each university submitted cherry-picked case studies (165 submissions)

· Evaluated by people from industry & government

· 24 ‘best’ selected

Example – research project

2000: Salinity was a hot topic

$1.4 billion of public funding

I was shocked· Poor design of the program

· Program developers seemed to have been unaware of crucial areas of salinity research and their implications

· No chance of any significant benefits

My response· Media· Discussion papers · Presentations· Submissions

Tried to help them· Developed INFFER (Investment Framework for

Environmental Resources)A tool for integrating the science with other infoDevelop logical, evidence-based environmental

projectsAssess value for moneyPrioritise projects

Strategy· Extensive input by users· Make tools as simple as possible· Provide training and help desk for users· Clear documentation aimed at non-experts· Public critiques of existing approaches· Attempt to influence gov’t agencies to change the

signals

Regional NRM application

International application

Policy impacts· Senate inquiry (2006)

Recommended use of INFFER· NRM Ministerial Council (2007)

Endorsed new set of principles for investment in salinity

· Victorian Government, Biodiversity White Paper “INFFER will be utilised for the next five years”.

· Caring for our Country Influenced design of project template

Example – blog

“Pannell Discussions”· Started in 2004

· Theme: environmental economics, agricultural economics, policy, etc.

· 250 posts so far

· Each is a mini-discussion paper (500-1000 words)

· Often references my own research

· About one every two weeks

“Pannell Discussions”· Subscribers receive notification of new posts

· 640 subscribers

· New posts are tweeted (130 followers)

· Popular posts get about 1000 readers

Real-world impacts· Less obvious than for INFFER

· Readers have a better understanding of economics than they would have

· Some reduction in confusion, misconceptions, prejudices

· Greater awareness of specific tools & concepts

· Increased profile for myself and UWA in the community

Costs?· It takes time

INFFER: lots!Pannell Discussions: about 1 hour per week

· Some academics might not consider these endeavours to be very academically respectable

· Some aspects are difficult, stressful, frustrating

· Is it worth it?Real world – definitely yesAcademically – yes, but …

Academic benefits (sample of 1!)· Journal papers generated

Directly part of the INFFER work: 17Related/stimulated by: 16

· But, different sorts of papersResponding to identified real-world needsCan be out of left field relative to the existing lit More inter-disciplinary papersMore synthesis/commentary type of papersMostly, it’s not the type of research that gets into

the most prestigious disciplinary journals

Academic benefits· Citations

These papers get relatively well citedOne INFFER-related paper is the most cited paper

over the last 8 years in Land Economics (one of the leading international journals in my field)

Academic benefits· Prizes/awards

· INFFEREureka Prize for

Interdisciplinary ResearchAARES Quality of Research Discovery Award

· Pannell DiscussionsAARES Quality of Research Communication Award

· GeneralPerhaps made some contribution to my Federation

Fellowship

Academic benefits· Opportunities generated

· Invited onto steering committee of major EU project, thanks to blog

· Reputation for useful research easier to get funding (unsolicited approaches offering $)

Would I recommend it?· Not for everyone

· Need to Get a buzz out of making a differenceHave strong communication skillsEnjoy the various challenges Be prepared/able to make the timeNot be too obsessed with academic prestige

· If project pushes for change, need toEnjoy learning about how things work in the real

worldBe resilient and persistent

Resilience/persistence needed· People will suspect your motives

· People with a vested interest in the status quo will attack you

· People will misunderstand, misinterpret, and totally misrepresent what you are saying

· Nobody reads more than a page

· Nobody knows about your discipline

· Everybody is too rushed to do things properly

Resilience/persistence needed· Everybody thinks they are doing a good job,

even if they clearly aren’t

· People think evidence and analysis is optional

· It reduces their flexibility for decision making

· People will pursue objectives you think are inappropriate

· Significant change takes years

· You have to repeat yourself ad nauseam

Resilience/persistence needed· You’ll see the same mistakes made repeatedly

· If you succeed, it could be more because of relationships and trust than the quality of your evidence or logic

· Even if you convince some people in the system of your position, people higher up who know absolutely nothing about it will over-rule them

· The person you’ve been cultivating will change jobs

Implications for universities· Don’t expect everyone to do it

· Some high achievers for real-world impact might not be academic high achievers

· Perhaps an initiative to free up some time for selected people

· Don’t set rigid requirements for “quality” based only on academic criteria

Implications for disciplines· Broaden perspective on what constitutes quality

· Broaden who judges

· Avoid rigour-mortis

· Be open to multi-disciplinary work

Resources· Pannell, D.J. and Roberts, A.M. (2009).

Conducting and delivering integrated research to influence land-use policy: salinity policy in Australia, Environmental Science and Policy 12(8), 1088-1099.http://dpannell.fnas.uwa.edu.au/dp0803.htm

· Pannell, D.J. (2004). Effectively communicating economics to policy makers. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 48(3), 535-555. http://dpannell.fnas.uwa.edu.au/j78ajare.pdf

Resources· Weible et al. (2012). “Understanding and

influencing the policy process”, Policy Science 45, 1-12. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11077-

011-9143-5

Pannell Discussions (Blog posts)· 150 – Why don’t environmental managers use

decision theory?http://www.pannelldiscussions.net/2009/04/150-wh

y-dont-environmental-managers-use-decision-theory/

· 136 – Engaging with policy: tips for researchershttp://www.pannelldiscussions.net/2008/09/136-eng

aging-with-policy-tips-for-researchers/

Resources· A relevant blog post by ecologist Brian McGill on

“What it takes to do policy-relevant science” http://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/

what-it-takes-to-do-policy-relevant-science/

· Video: Ben Martin (U Sussex) “Science Policy Research - Can Research Influence Policy? How? And Does It Make for Better Policy?”http://upload.sms.csx.cam.ac.uk/media/747324

For this PPT see www.davidpannell.net under “Talks”

Other needs (for policy impact)· Need some demand pull

· Seek a product champion

· Understand potential users

· Understand the chain from research to impact for your issue

A chain from research to impact: Information for policy· Research

· Something useful is learned (or isn’t)

· New information influences policy (or doesn’t)

· Policy change is implemented (or isn’t)

· If policy aims to change behaviour, people respond as intended (or don’t)

· Changes (relative to no research) result – social, environmental or economic benefits (or not)

Other needs (for policy impact)· Need “absorptive capacity” in the organisation

· The political circumstances need to be right. You can’t change ideological positions of govt.

· Timing. Grasp opportunities.

· Good communicationSimplicity, brevity, clarityAvoid jargon, maths, complex graphs