New research into the REF2021 impact case studies shows that impact is often “exported” within the UK, levelling up the benefits of research between regions. But we also see that only a handful of universities have a “hyperlocal” impact within 25km of their institution.
Much has been written about “levelling up” the higher education and research activity of the UK – just check out the Wonkhe archives to get a sense of how this Johnsonian soundbite has taken hold.
But the idea of regional inequities is not new – especially in the allocation of research funds with concerns about the “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London being at least a generation old. The long history of analysing regional research inequities has been dominated by mapping the inputs to research – that is, money – with limited analysis on the outputs (i.e. publications), and none that we are aware of on beneficiaries (impact).
