Evaluating creative practice research: A new framework

It has been widely noted that creative practice research agitates in positive ways certain attitudes, understandings and/or practices towards ‘knowledge’ and ‘research’ within the university context. Not only this, or partly because of this, creative practice research complicates established scholarly protocols of assessment and evaluation. This has been a topic of concern and debate for the field for the past 30 years (since the emergence of the field as such). This research was conducted in the Australian context where the government research evaluation program has been under review since 2021. The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts (DDCA) felt a duty to step into this context and facilitate a sector-wide series of activities that would address the main issues for the field. This was done with the view to writing a set of key recommendations pertinent to the sector which would enable a new and fit-for-purpose approach to creative practice research assessment and evaluation. This article details the seven key recommendations that resulted from these activities.