Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research: Beyond Impact

Universities are increasingly being asked to take an active role as research collaborators with citizens, public bodies and community organisations which, it is claimed, makes them more accountable, creates better research outcomes and enhances the knowledge base. Yet many of these research collaborators, as well as their funders and institutions, have not yet developed the methods to 'account for ' collaborative research or to help collaborators in challenging the assumptions about the quality of this work. This book highlights the benefits of universities collaborating with outside bodies on research and addresses the key challenges of articulating the value of collaborative research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It includes the voices and perspectives from researchers and practitioners in a wide range of disciplines. Together they explore tensions in the evaluation and assessment of research in general, and the debates generated by collaborative research between universities and communities to enable greater understanding of collaborative research and to provide a much-needed account of key theorists int eh field of interdisciplinary collaborative research.