Why do evidence, insight, and academic impact matter? With Brighton University’s Professor Rusi Jaspal

Data Malarkey - the podcast about using data smarter

In the second episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks with Professor Rusi Jaspal. Rusi is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange – and a Professor of Psychology – at the University of Brighton. He’s in charge of both the REF and the KEF – the university’s preparations for the UK Government’s seven-yearly Research Excellence Framework as well as its Knowledge Exchange Framework. This means that data and evidence, insight and impact are central to everything he does.

His own research is focused on psychological and physical health outcomes, especially in minority groups, including HIV prevention, care, and mental health. From psychological wellbeing among gay men to management of identities in conflict, from prejudice and discrimination to the psychological impact of the COVID pandemic.

Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 27 February 2023.

Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support.

Podcast artwork by Shatter Media.

Voice over by Samantha Boffin.

With Rusi’s work split between his role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange and as a Professor of Psychology, data, evidence, and data-driven decision-making is at the heart of everything he does. We talk more than once about the pioneering “Brains at the Bevy”, a Community University Partnership Programme at which Brighton academics present their work at the Bevendean Community Pub in Moulsecoomb, the suburb of Brighton where the main campus of the University is located. The Bevy is the first community-owned pub on a housing estate in the UK, and the programme requires Brighton academics to explain the meaning and impact of their research to the local community in layman’s terms. No opportunities for getting bogged down in too much data there, for sure. No role for the Curse of Knowledge.

Rusi talks about the mutually supportive role and value that qualitative research data has for quantitative data, and vice versa, as well as the difficulties of capturing elusive human qualities such as “self-esteem” in a single number. As a psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society, he feels a keen responsibility to ensure that his and his team’s research findings are correct, clear, and easy-to-understand. To move from data to insight, Rusi often deploys theory – while always remaining aware that data must not be force-fitted to support a particular favourite theory. The moment of transition from data to insight requires honesty.

For Rusi, academic findings are best presented in the form of a story, though he urges caution in using the right type of data to draw conclusions about causation. While experimental data can allow us to generalise from the particular, cross-sectional survey data cannot and should not be.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Rusi’s Twitter handle – https://twitter.com/ProfRJaspal

Rusi’s Brighton University page – https://www.brighton.ac.uk/about-us/governance-and-structure/leadership/university-executive-board/professor-rusi-jaspal.aspx

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