Session 1: FRONTIERS: why research on research matters Where do we see the greatest progress and possibilities of RoR? Panorama: Chonnettia Jones, Director of Insight and Analysis, Wellcome Snapshots: James Wilsdon, Professor of Research Policy, University of Sheffield Sarah de Rijcke, Director, CWTS, Leiden University Daniel Hook, CEO, Digital Science

1. NEW FRONTIERS FOR
RESEARCH ON
RESEARCH
WELCOME

2. #RoRILaunch
@RoRInstitute
http://researchonresearch.org

3. Housekeeping
 Fire alarm
 Utilities
 Phones
 Sessions format

4. FRONTIERS:
WHY RESEARCH ON
RESEARCH MATTERS

5. FRONTIERS:
WHY RESEARCH ON
RESEARCH MATTERS
A FUNDER’S PERSPECTIVE
CHONNETTIA JONES, WELLCOME

6. “Global spending on R&D has reached a record
high of almost US $1.7 trillion. About 10 countries
account for 80% of spending. As part of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries
have pledged to substantially increase public and
private R&D spending as well as the number of
researchers by 2030.”
- UNESCO.org

7. 7
Our origins
Founder Sir Henry Wellcome was
an entrepreneur, collector and
philanthropist.
On his death in 1936, his will
established a charity for "the
advancement of medical and
scientific research to improve
mankind's wellbeing".

8. Wellcome’s mission is
to improve health for
everyone by helping great
ideas to thrive.

9. We hold ourselves accountable to
society for delivering Wellcome’s
mission, while using our
independence for public benefit.

10. Why ‘research on research’
 Wellcome wants to distribute its funding in the most efficient, fair,
effective, and beneficial ways possible to achieve our mission of
improving health for everyone.
 To that end, we wish to encourage research that helps us to better
understand our own funding practices and policies - and those of other
funders - and how they can be improved to enable research and
innovation.

11. What we learned
 Evidence tends to be narrow, fragmented, rarely generalisable and not
actionable by funders.
 There is little funding for meta-research studies that could usefully
inform funding policy and practice.
 Funders need to participate as collaborators and end-users of research
through the co-design, co-development and co-production of research.
 There should be a clearly defined set of research questions where
funding data, policies and practices can be shared.

12. “The relentless drive for research
excellence has created a culture..that
cares exclusively about what is
achieved, and not about how it is
achieved.”
- Sir Jeremy Farrar, Wellcome
Help us #ReimagineResearch

13. African Academy of Sciences
Austrian Science Fund
Consortium of Canadian funders including British Columbia’s
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Dutch Research Council
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Novo Nordisk Foundation
Albert P. Sloan Foundation
Swiss National Science Foundation
Volkswagen Foundation
Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance
Wellcome Trust

14. FRONTIERS:
WHY RESEARCH ON
RESEARCH MATTERS
AN ACADEMIC’S PERSPECTIVE
SARAH DE RIJCKE, CWTS, LEIDEN UNIVERSITY

15. Research on Research: a new field?
197319621913 1971 1995 2011 20191978 2016

16. Who’s doing RoR?

19. ‘Disciplines discipline disciples’
(Barry, Born & Weszkalnys 2008: 20)

20. 2019: the need for RoR has intensified

21. World of
research

22. ‘In the regime of the inter-, certain visions of
territory - along with the corollary concepts of
borders, incursions, and empire-building -
loom large.’
(Fitzgerald & Callard 2015: 16)

23. Transformative RoR at CWTS
Fueling public debate
on valuing research
Provider of research
intelligence
Research evaluation, -
management, - policy
Tool development
& reflexive analysis

24. Set ourselves against the ‘regime of the inter-’
And start -->
(Fitzgerald & Callard 2015: 16)

25. RoR: pooling capacities
Improved understanding | Better measures | Real life application | Expanding the frontiers

26. FRONTIERS:
WHY RESEARCH ON
RESEARCH MATTERS
A TECHNOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE
DANIEL HOOK, DIGITAL SCIENCE

30. FRONTIERS:
WHY RESEARCH ON
RESEARCH MATTERS
RORI: VISION, AIMS, OPPORTUNITIES
JAMES WILSDON, UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

31. So why RoRI?

32. If at first you don't succeed...

33. Partnerships and co-design are key

34. RoRI's five aims
To support and build capacity for interdisciplinary, mixed-method and translational RoR in and
across research systems worldwide (research role);
To connect academic RoR capabilities to the data and analytical resources of our founding and
strategic partners (translation role);
With these partners, to experiment, coproduce and test new tools, indicators, funding modes,
decision and evaluation frameworks (innovation role);
To critically evaluate RoR methods and support engagement with RoR data and evidence by
decision makers and wider society (brokerage role);
To create an independent space for RoR learning, networking and collaboration between
researchers, policymakers, funders & technologists (facilitator role).

35. Rigorous research, sparking debate

36. Join the conversation, get involved...
@RoRInstitute
http://researchonresearch.org

37. PRIORITIES: FROM DATA
TO DELIBERATION &
DECISION-MAKING