Exploring a new era of screen production research: laying foundations for engagement and impact

Writing from the perspective of the peak body for screen production education and research in Australia, ASPERA, the authors report on a research symposium held in 2017 that brought together the academy and industry to explore strategies for what the engagement and impact agenda might mean for the ASPERA community. In this context they explore what engagement looks like and how it can be structured as a pathway to impact; the implications and mechanisms for measuring impact in a variety of contexts; and the possible ramifications of the engagement and impact agenda on how ASPERA practitioner-researchers do their work. A set of complex and competing perspectives are presented that, while on the one hand provide principles and models for best practice, on the other hand question and problematise this new era of research.