This article provides a conceptual framework for understanding, measuring, and encouraging research impact for academics. Although not alone in seeking to impact public policy with their research, academics are under-utilised creators of knowledge.

This paper makes the case for evidence-based policy, before recapping the history of the 'What Works' movement and its particular structure in the United Kingdom.

The global R&D system has undergone significant changes in just 20 years, with total global R&D investment tripling since 2000 to over $2.2 trillion per annum. This paper uses bibliometric data (data on research publications) to provide an alternative, output-based perspective on the change over the last 20 years.

This article argues that research systems must actively invest in the careers of researchers with disability. It highlights persistent barriers such as insecure funding, limited career pathways and exclusion from leadership, and calls for accessible, disability‑led funding, mentoring and structural reform to ensure lived experience is valued and retained within research and policy systems.

This study suggests that on its current trajectory, China is set to overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest spender on research and development, and the UK’s most significant research partner - raising pressing questions for policymakers at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.