Research Systems as Research Objects: Histories, Lessons & Futures (Hybrid)

About event

Join us for this exciting, free SSN symposium with Professor James Wilsdon and panellists. Join in-person (catered), or online.

Research systems as research objects: histories, lessons and futures

Hosted by the Deakin Science and Society Network (SSN), this symposium is organised by Radhika Gorur (Deakin University, REDI and the STudieS Network) and Sujatha Raman (ANU) UNESCO Chair in Science Communication for the Public Good.

In-person (Deakin Downtown), or online options available at checkout (free event).

About the symposium

The Chief Scientist’s Office is calling for consultation around renewed science priorities for Australia that go beyond mere economic gain and towards ‘Australian wellbeing’. Social Scientists, particularly in the field of science studies, are well placed to contribute to these discussions. Research systems and research policies have been objects of study in the social sciences since at least the 1980s. Some areas of this research field have significantly influenced how research is organised, monitored and managed today (e.g., quantitative citation metrics) while the impact of other areas (e.g., qualitative studies or emerging traditions of meta-science) needs further exploration. Research-based paradigms and principles of quantitative research assessment and management are also changing (e.g., the Leiden Manifesto on bibliometrics) and diversifying (e.g., around open research and open knowledge institutions) in ways that are not widely appreciated. At the same time, forms of public knowledge creation and diffusion are under scrutiny.

This symposium brings together colleagues from across the humanities and social sciences, research management and university management to explore the wider implications of work on research systems and research policy. The Chief Scientist’s call for revitalising Australia’s science and research priorities provides an opportunity to explore these implications.

Keynote: Are we all metascientists now? Journeys through the commons & borderlands of research on research

Professor James Wilsdon (University College London) Director of the Research on Research Institute (RoRI) and Professor of Research Policy in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP).

Abstract

Since 2000, global investment in research and development (R&D) has tripled—to around US $2 trillion a year. This extra investment has been accompanied by inflated aspirations and sharpened accountabilities to government, citizens and society. The resulting tensions and opportunities have spurred an expansion of research on research— known also as meta-research, metascience or science of science— which has grown in volume, visibility and intensity. These domains draw on a blend of old and new methodological approaches. From different starting points, they aim to better understand research systems; to ensure that R&D resources are invested effectively; and to underpin reforms to the ways that funding is allocated, results are disseminated and outcomes are measured and evaluated.

Alongside other efforts in the US, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, one recent initiative in this space has been the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), founded in Europe in 2019 by a group of research funders and meta-researchers, with a mission to accelerate transformative research on research systems, cultures and decision-making.

In this talk, drawing on the work of RoRI, and his own messy and undisciplined 20-year journey through the ‘commons and borderlands’ (Marilyn Strathern) of research on research, James Wilsdon will share insights and pose a few questions about the future of these fields.

Blending the personal, the political and the institutional, he will poke at the foundations of meta-research; reflect on what’s old, what’s new, and what’s borrowed from elsewhere; ask how one institutionalises an endeavour which is inherently transdisciplinary within structures which (for all their rhetorical nods elsewhere) remain in essence siloed and monodisciplinary.

And at a time when so much is up for grabs in the governance and design of Australia’s research system—from the reform of ERA, through the review to ARC to the new Australian Universities Accord— James will end by offering a few tentative thoughts on the metascientific possibilities of the present moment.

Panel Discussion

What are the key challenges for research policy in Australia in the context of aspirations to contribute to social wellbeing and not just economic growth? What are the implications of historical and social science work on research systems and policies for the setting of future research priorities? How can concepts of wider public good or public value help articulate these implications? What are the lessons for us in Australia from history and from work done by our peers elsewhere in the world? (moderated by Sujatha Raman).

Panellists:

Fiona Fidler, Professor, MetaMelb and School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne

Matthew Kearnes, Professor, School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales

Tamson Pietsch, Associate Professor & Director of the Australian Centre for Public History, University of Technology Sydney (TBC)

Robin Scott, Industry Professor, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University

With thanks to our co-sponsors

Research for Educational Impact (REDI) (Deakin)

STudieS: A Network for STS in Education

The Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science (CPAS)

Science and Society @ ANU

UNSW Science and Society Network (UNSW)