Evidencing and ensuring impactful research from developer-funded archaeology

The developer-funded (or contracting) sector of the archaeological profession produces the vast majority of datasets from investigations across the UK, and the formally published outputs from these projects are acknowledged as being of an academic standard. In this paper I examine some examples from my own work and assess their recordable research impact. I also look at the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 submissions and note an almost total absence of datasets showing research collaborations with colleagues from within the contracting sector. This leads me to believe there are perhaps few opportunities for this type of collaborative project, and to think that REF submissions by higher education institutions (HEIs) tend to utilise datasets created by the developer-funded sector, rather than embarking on more meaningfully co-created models of research. I conclude therefore that the developer-funded sector should empower itself to lead the sector in designing a new research and impact landscape whereby new paradigms are established that respond to the environments within which our work materialises. (NB This paper is not about grey literature.)