What’s in a slogan? Translational science and the rhetorical work of cancer researchers in a UK university

Abstract

Translational science is currently proving a highly influential term in framing how biomedical research is promoted and evaluated in a great number of countries. Although there has been a steady trickle of scholarly literature on the topic, the performative uses effects of the term in practices of academic researchers has been under-researched. Drawing on interviews with members of a cancer laboratory and research institute in a UK research university, the paper analyzes various uses and contexts in which the slogan is deployed. The findings demonstrate the multi-dimensional uses of the term across different levels of the organisation, acting at one level as a managerial function for formulating an ‘impact’ narrative, whilst also fulfilling researcher requirements to satisfy demands made of them in pursuing funding and positions. Analyzing how this specific slogan functions in this site evokes a wider set of considerations about the kinds of rhetoric invoked and increasingly expected of cancer scientists in academic settings.