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Introduced to help boost technology transfer amid renewed political focus on ‘industrial strategy’, the KEF aims to complement the REF and TEF. But how will it work? Is it even necessary? And is the UK really underperforming at commercialising its research? Rachael Pells reports

Knowledge exchange sits low on academia’s menu, overshadowed by meatier mains, but could the assessment of universities’ third-stream activities tempt some to make it a signature dish?

Simon Baker discovers what the World Economic Forum’s ‘community’ of universities – the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) – can teach us about industry-academia collaboration and innovation with economic impact

Canadian scientists’ impressive campaign for increased basic science funding risks splintering as victory looms, says Jim Woodgett

A year-long experiment convinced Michael Marinetto that carving out research time is a fun but unwinnable game 

Collaboration within the Gulf region was rare but now the few oases in the desert risk running dry, says Hilal Lashuel 

Unclear whether new regulator will maintain programme that informs English higher education policy

Almost 2,350 academics from non-UK European countries have resigned from UK universities in the past year, and Layla Moran fears that could be just the tip of the iceberg

Technology behind Bitcoin is not just hype, say advocates, but could prevent data tampering and improve reproducibility

Working with pen and paper and cut off from the outside world, Ali Kaya wrote three papers, re-deriving physical formulas from scratch

Pakistani journals lack the professionalism and expertise to support a thriving knowledge economy, say Abdur Rehman Cheema and Mehvish Riaz

Matthew Reisz meets the scholars for whom one discipline is not enough

Interim candidate confirmed in post on permanent basis at new umbrella body

Data from the THE World University Rankings suggest Western nations such as the UK are making good use of limited resources, but what are the side effects?

Bias in assessing submissions is inevitable and damaging. Anonymisation is the least bad solution, says Graham Farrell

Change in balance between teaching and research-focused universities is an indicator of progress, say analysts

Comparison of national test results data shows pupils admitted to university under racial quotas graduate with the same scores on average as non-quota peers

There is no evidence that the REF process encourages academics to rush out more research of a lower quality, says Steven Hill

There is growing concern that China is trying to silence its critics in the West, with academic publishers a particular target. Tao Zhang considers the consequences for scholarly freedom – and what can be done to tackle such restrictions

Study finds 35 per cent increase in publications ahead of submission deadline, but 12 per cent decline in citations

Partnerships should allow access to a wider pool of research grants, institutions hope

The data underlying Altmetric’s top 100 articles of last year suggest that health research shared on Twitter has most impact

Increases in government research funding are absorbed by scientists at the ‘bottom of the hierarchy’, study suggests

Imperial College London centre will aim to speed up development of vaccines

Echoing the UK, government will also seek to measure the impact of research on society and business

Leeds Beckett University researchers are to publish a book exploring how the unheralded British actor became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars

A trawl of published research shows that Santa Claus has an enduring fascination for academics

Fears that uncertainty over UK’s future in EU research framework has led to drop of half a billion euros in coordinated projects

Without QR funding, the UK research base would be like a Lego set with only one type of brick, write Sarah Chaytor and Graeme Reid

The past year has seemed one of almost daily shocks and surprises for higher education, which THE has divulged, documented and dissected

Chris Parr reveals the 25 ߣߣÊÓƵ stories that received the most views during the last 12 months

Got some last minute scholarly Christmas shopping to do? Glen Wright has got your back

Clare McGlynn is not surprised that the UK was overlooked as a focus country after a successful EU funding bid

Botanist warns of continuing political instability and restrictive legislation on science

Editing an academic journal is a vital and rewarding task, but also time-consuming and often frustrating. Current and former editors advise would-be gatekeepers on why you'll need the skills of a ringmaster – and more

Controversy in Canada over support for blue-skies research would diminish if more researchers took Pasteur’s approach, says Creso Sá

Academic travel is hard work, but destinations that are sunny and picturesque have their consolations, says Emily Michelson

The mantra that research is loss-making is a convenient fiction used to draw more money to the centres of universities, say Peter Coveney and Christopher Greenwell    

£10 million gift will help fund what will become one of Europe’s largest centres for interdisciplinary learning and research

Investment is ‘necessary but not sufficient’ to enable world-class research, which also relies on international collaboration

Alternative metrics find that research on dieting, PhD mental health and female doctors attracted the most online attention this year

Response to US withdrawal from Paris climate accords announces first winners – but has been denounced as a publicity stunt by some French academics

Les Hatton and Gregory Warr give their two-pronged solution to the problems of peer review

National University of Singapore president says focus is moving away from short-term and applied research

Decline of corporate discovery programmes could narrow scope of innovation, scholars warn

Monographs typically constitute a scholar’s greatest achievement, but REF strategists discourage their production, says Bruce Macfarlane

Kaitlyn Regehr learned from former striptease dancers that what they did was not a safe, sex‑positive hobby but often a means of survival that intersected with sex work

Not far from the birthplace of preventative medicine, research institutes in the French capital are working together to launch a new era of technology transfer

Southern Illinois University under investigation for medical school researcher’s involvement with controversial herpes vaccine trial

New programme will build on earlier successes in fields ranging from nanotechnology to sustainable energy

Staff at new UNAM centre will work on research collaborations between both countries

Prize money of â‚¬100,000 (£88,000) handed out on basis of scholars’ three-minute spiels

White Paper draws ‘line under’ past failings on applied research policy, says academic

Holly Else reveals the results of a THE poll seeking to uncover the extent of authorship abuses as well as views on what criteria should generate credit

Two-thirds of researchers have been slighted by seniors on authorship issues, THE poll reveals

Academics are likely to be happier at work if their research involves scholars away from their institution, study reveals

The 2021 research excellence framework could be more representative and humane than ever, but the devil will be in the implementation, says James Wilsdon

In the rivalry to make the next scientific breakthrough, collaboration is key. But the UK’s post-Brexit course only undermines its competitive standing

Research areas that will receive special attention include artificial intelligence and the life sciences, but are they the right fields to focus on?

Universities stand to benefit if companies relocate to stay close to sector agency, say experts