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Project team

As experts on research impact, our leadership is available for invited talks, panel events, and other collaborations. Let us know if you’d like to partner on a project.

Lead Investigator


  • Dr Kate Williams is the Lead Investigator of the ‘Impact of Impact’ project and Senior Lecturer of Public Policy at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her research occurs at the intersection of public policy, sociology and research policy. Her publications focus on the production, use and evaluation of policy knowledge, and on cultures of evaluation and emerging methods of research impact assessment. Her previous work, funded by an ESRC Future Research Leaders Grant and a British Academy and Leverhulme Grant, investigated the creation and assessment of value in policy knowledge contexts, including the World Bank, London School of Economics and J-PAL. Prior to joining Melbourne, Kate was a Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of York from 2019-2020. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. Kate holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge.

Admin Lead


  • Alexandra Pollitt, Co-Investigator, is Director of Research at the Policy Institute at Kings College London. She is the designated Administrative Lead (PI) on the project, since Kate’s relocation to Australia. She works on a wide range of topics, but her main focus is science policy. Her recent work includes a series of studies estimating the economic returns of biomedical research, a study mapping the global mental health research funding landscape and a scientometric evaluation of the European Research Council’s portfolio. She has carried out extensive work on the societal impact of research, including a comparison of the relative value researchers and the public place on different kinds of impact. Alex has expertise in a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and has taught research methods, communications and project management internationally. She holds an MA in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University and previously worked in psychiatry research at the University of Cambridge. Before joining King’s, Alex spent six years working in policy research and analysis at RAND Europe. She has also worked in impact evaluation for an international NGO.

 
ESRC grant - Jonathan Grant & Kate Williams

Co-Investigator

  • Dr Jonathan Grant, Co-Investigator, is Director of Different Angles, a consultancy that focuses on the social impact of universities and research. His main interests are in biomedical and health R&D policy, research impact assessment, the use of research and evidence in policy and decision-taking, and the social purpose of universities in the 21st century. Jonathan joined King’s College London, as professor of public policy, in 2014 to set up the Policy Institute at King’s, and was its Director until 2017, when he stepped down to “hold the pen” on developing King’s strategic vision 2029. He then was appointed Vice President & Vice Principal (Service).

Researcher

  • Dr Eliel Cohen, Postdoctoral Associate, is a sociologist of higher education and postdoctoral associate on the project. His longest-running interest is in how higher education policy and practice can make universities more accessible and inclusive. His recent postdoctoral role at Imperial College London explored these issues in a STEM-specific context. His other main interest has been how universities construct and legitimate their roles, goals and practices in negotiation with wider society, particularly in the context of the recent ‘impact agenda’ for academic research. In this area, Eliel’s work has focused on STEM departments that have achieved national recognition for their non-academic impact. His recent book, The University and its Boundaries: Thriving or Surviving in the 21st Century, draws from this research to explore some of the challenges and opportunities for universities and policymakers who aim to make the most of what is distinctive, and distinctively valuable, about universities. He is also interested in critical realist and phenomenological philosophy applied to empirical social research.

Administrator


  • Dahae Suh, Administrator, is the Senior Team Administrator at the Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, and administrator for the project. She delivers and coordinates administrative support for the ESRC funded project and general business operations for the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. Dahae's background is in Education Studies at UCL Institute of Education, before moving into teacher education for primary and secondary pupils and an Assistant Director at a large UK tuition company. She then continued to explore her interest in higher education working as a Programme Administrator on Post Graduate Taught programmes at University College London for two years before joining King's College London.

 
 

Affiliated researchers

  • Glen Berman, is an affiliated PhD researcher currently completing his doctoral studies at ANU College of Engineering & Computer Science. Glen’s research focuses on the relations between Machine Learning practitioners, their engineering tools, and the social outcomes of socio-technical systems that incorporate ML technologies. He aims to understand how the next generation of engineering tools, particularly AutoML and cloud-based development platforms, are reconfiguring ML engineering practices.

 

Advisory board

  • Dr Gemma Derrick is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster. Gemma's research concentrates on science and innovation policy and its impacts. These include on the health system, the culture of academia, knowledge production and universities more broadly. She also conducts research into the evaluation of competing notions of research excellence in academia, including scientific impact, societal impact and interdisciplinary.

  • Dr Steven Hill is Director of Research at Research England UKRI. Steven was formerly Head of Research Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and leads on all aspects of research policy and funding. Steven is responsible for research funding, including quality-related funding (QR), general capital funding and the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF). He also leads Research England's research assessment and policy work, and is the chair of the steering group for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). Policy responsibilities include research integrity, public engagement and open research, and Steven contributes to debates and discussions at home and overseas on the enhancement and assessment of research impact. His team also includes Research England's analysis function.

  • Sarah Howard is the Branch Manager (Research Excellence) at the Australian Research Council and leads the ongoing implementation of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) program, and the development and implementation of a new national assessment of engagement and impact of Australian university research. Sarah also oversees the management of the longitudinal datasets for these evaluation programs and the provision of policy advice on research evaluation and the state of the Australian research landscape more broadly.

  • Prof Jenny Lewis is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Melbourne and is the President of the International Research Society for Public Management. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia, and an expert on policy making, policy design and public sector innovation. Jenny is a previous President of the Australian Political Studies Association and was the founding Director of The Policy Lab. She was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow for 2013-16, has received multiple research grants within Australia and internationally, and is the author of six books, and more than 80 journal articles and book chapters.

  • Professor Terry Nolan is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne, and head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group (or VIRGo) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He was the Foundation Head of the Melbourne University

  • Professor Toby Parcel is a former Programme Director of Sociology at the National Science Foundation. Her teaching and research interests were around the following themes: work, family and education; social capital; social stratification; school resegregation; and child outcomes.

  • Dr Susan Renoe is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research, Extension & Engagement at the University of Missouri, a joint position between the Office of Research & Economic Development and the Office of Extension & Engagement. In her role, Susan works to strengthen the university’s impact on the state of Missouri. She is also Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the National Science Foundation-funded (NSF) Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society.

  • Professor Amy Schalet is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Amy is a specialist in culture and adolescent sexuality in comparative perspective, and author of Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex. Not Under My Roof is an award-winning, scholarly study of culture, sexuality, and institutions. In addition, Schalet has co-authored several influential review articles synthesizing scientific evidence pertinent to sexual health policy making.