Objections to Impact Rejected by RCUK

According to the Times Higher today, representatives of a group of 52 prominent academics, including 10 Nobel laureates, met with RCUK to urge them mto abando the Impact assessment. 'We do not know of any major scientifc discovery that followed a predictable course. Therefore, RCUK's impact initiative encourages speculation and introduces unscientific criteria into the research selection processes,' the group claim.

However, the group met with a 'dogmatic' response. RCUK took their concerns 'very seriously,' but rejected them. Prof Don Braben, leader of the group, said that 'in my long experience of dealing with officialdom, I have not come across such an overtly dogmatic stance. Alan Thorpe and his colleagues were completely unmoved by scientific arguments, and indeed, refused in effect to discuss them.'