How to foster innovation in the social sciences? Qualitative evidence from focus group workshops at Oxford University

TL;DR

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities for fostering innovation in social sciences at Oxford through focus group insights, highlighting institutional and disciplinary barriers and proposing solutions.

Contribution

It provides qualitative evidence from expert focus groups on how to enhance innovation and commercialization in social sciences at a leading university.

Findings

Identifies institutional and individual barriers to innovation.

Highlights features of social sciences that impede innovation.

Suggests potential solutions and strategies for fostering innovation.

Abstract

This report addresses challenges and opportunities for innovation in the social sciences at the University of Oxford. It summarises findings from two focus group workshops with innovation experts from the University ecosystem. Experts included successful social science entrepreneurs and professional service staff from the University. The workshops focused on four different dimensions related to innovative activities and commercialisation. The findings show several challenges at the institutional and individual level, together with features of the social scientific discipline that impede more innovation in the social sciences. Based on identifying these challenges, we present potential solutions and ways forward identified in the focus group discussions to foster social science innovation. The report aims to illustrate the potential of innovation and commercialisation of social scientific research for both researchers and the university.