Social Science Space

“The problem with intangibles is often with identifying whether there is an asset, and who owns it and why,” says Lord David Willetts, visiting professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s College London, president of the Resolution Foundation, and minister for universities and science from 2010 to 2014. Here he talks with the LSE’s David Coombe and Horatio Mortimer.

For this fifth article in the series of measuring impact, Louis Coiffait spoke to two leading UK experts who also know other countries; Dr Hamish McAlpine, head of knowledge exchange data and evidence at Research England, and Sean Fielding, director of innovation, impact and business at the University of Exeter, and also the chair of the UK national knowledge exchange association, PraxisAuril.

If the public institution is committed to public interest, then privatization of research and teaching cannot be allowed. Work done should be seen, heard and critiqued. Innovation in knowledge can come when people take away ideas from us, just as we did. Research should be made public, accountable and responsible. The data commons in public interest cannot be sacrificed at the altar of intellectual autonomy.

It seems we are to get Open Access in the UK whether we like it or not. It is, though, interesting to note how cavalier some people are about others’ intellectual property rights.