Bulley/Şahin Report on practice research (PRAG-UK & Research England, 2021)

[This is a legacy post from Jun 9th, 2021 10:35:43am, ported across from the old website for continuity]

PRAG-UK (practice research advisory group) and Research England have just released an excellent new report on practice research that is worth everyone reading: actually two reports in one, focussing respectively on:

1. providing some common terms and definitions for practice research (e.g. just calling it ‘practice research’, not -led/-based/PaR/artistic/etc), and suggestions for REF, and most importantly for going beyond the ‘REF-graveyard’. 

2. how we share practice research. Making it findable and archivable: how can libraries help? do we need an open library for all to deposit to?Avoiding unproductive duplication, etc.

I think this document can provide a really useful single-point of reference for practice research in the UK, and has many useful suggestions for practical ways that we can make it easier to find and share practice research.

You can read the doc here. It’s not short but it’s very concise and clear, and the authors have done a great job of summarising each section (so if you’re short of time you can get the key points quickly at the head of each chapter, then dig in later).

https://bl.iro.bl.uk/concern/reports/b51c0f52-9801-49d9-9f00-cca89741091b

At the RMA 2021 conference in Sept. there will be a sandpit session (on the 16th) for practice researchers where we can discuss the report and look for ways to implement its suggestions as appropriate. There will also be a panel session with a broad range of disciplines (performance, composition, production/pop, ethnomusicology) discussing similarities and differences across sub-disciplines. 

Personally, I think this is a very important document to help unite the principles by which we do practice research in the UK. I’m not 100% behind completely everything in it (I don’t think anyone will truly be 100%), but I strongly believe that’s worth getting behind it, and that this report is a broad and supportive approach and that we all have so much to gain by having agreement on our basic principles.

This document is also very important for institutions; for research managers (to properly understand practice), and libraries/research-support to ensure we have better storage/archiving and sharing of practice in all its diversity. 

Please share widely.