Social Value in Research

Research is a massively important aspect of modern life, directly influencing how we see the world around us. However, research is also incredibly expensive (unsurprisingly), which is why social value in research is vital to ensure consumers are getting good value for money from their funds. Fortunately, our experts are on hand today to help you find out a little more about how social value works in research applications and what this might mean for your own research goals.

What is Social Value in Research?

Social value is a concept that has been pushed increasingly in recent years, aiming to ensure that consumers and members of the public derive benefits from research purposes overall. Social value can simply be defined as the social benefits that an activity or project brings for members of the wider population and community.

This factor is often considered from a business perspective; however, it is also vital to focus on social value in research. After all, research aims to further our knowledge of the world around us; therefore, researchers must be able to bring value for money to the communities they are striving to support. However, in some cases, social value in research is not always quite so clear-cut, and the social value researchers can bring may be several steps down the supply chain.

How Social Value Applies to Research Applications

As we’ve briefly outlined above, social value is directly linked with research applications. The majority of research applications have a very clear link between their work and social value; often, research into healthcare, social wellbeing, and the like will directly bring new social value for communities down the line. This social value may be received as enhanced healthcare, a better and more suitable selection of products in stores, and so on.

However, some research applications may not be quite so evident in terms of how they benefit the community; for example, deriving social value from research that focuses on enhancing business profitability may not be seen immediately by the consumers. However, since social value is a goal that all businesses should be working towards in the modern age, it’s hopeful that scientific research into business and commercial betterment could result in commercial social benefits for consumers down the line. These value points might include better prices or reduced risk of supply chain shortages.

In short: researchers have a massive opportunity to influence and provide social value for consumers, even if the research isn’t directly impacting them. And, since a large amount of research is publicly funded, it’s safe to say that consumers expect to see good results from public spending on research purposes. Meanwhile, when businesses invest in research to further their operations, it’s also important to ensure the final results of the research can benefit the consumer in some manner.

Final Thoughts

In many cases, we can easily fall into the trap of assuming that social value is reserved exclusively for businesses. However, this isn’t entirely true, and social value is an important goal for all businesses – including research laboratories and the like. As such, when conducting research scientifically, it is always important for researchers to consider how their research work will provide social value to the intended recipients. After all, scientific research aims to help further our knowledge and understanding of the world around us; with this thought in mind, it’s more vital than ever to ensure that consumers get top-value services from research.

If you have any further questions about social value in research, please don’t hesitate to contact our expert team today! After all, we’re here to help you understand more about the nuances of social value.