Section 1: What is societal impact and how important is it to researchers?

What is societal impact and how important is it to researchers?

Introduction

Considering the importance now placed on societal impact by many funders and academic institutions, it’s perhaps surprising to be asking the question, "What is societal impact?"

But the findings from both our survey research and our interviews with researchers reveal that there’s no single accepted definition of the term. Researchers’ interpretations of what constitutes societal impact are often closely tied to their discipline.

For example, those we spoke to in the health, social, and political sciences talked about their impact on the public and policymakers – considering how they could create change directly within communities, for example.

Meanwhile, those in STEM subjects like Physics and Biology discussed how their research can be taken and applied to have an impact in society – for example, through starting companies or creating products based on their research.

In the broadest possible sense, however, there was consensus that having a societal impact entails maximising how the results of research are used to benefit society.

Research Insights

Findings from our researcher survey
We conducted a survey with over 9,000 researchers to understand how societal impact is viewed by academics across different countries, disciplines and career stages. This is what we found…Societal impact beyond academia is important for two-thirds of global researchers:

In general, however, more researchers think it is more important/very important that their papers are read by their peers (82%) than that their research has societal impact (68%)

Younger researchers are more likely to feel societal impact is important

Nearly half of respondents are asked by their funder “always” or “most of the time” to consider societal impact when applying for a grant, although there was wide variance, even within geographic regions

There were statistically significant differences by region, discipline, seniority and institutional size when it came to views of the importance of societal impact:Societal impact of research, beyond academia, is seen as most important:

In India and Central & South America – 84% and 77% respectively said ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important compared to the mean of 68%.
In Social Sciences and Medicine – 77% and 73% respectively said ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important compared to the mean of 68%.
By younger researchers – 73% of those first publishing in 2010 or later said ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important compared to the mean of 68%.
By those in very small institutions – 73% of researchers at very small institutions said ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important compared to the mean of 68%

Interview insights from academics based in the Netherlands

We carried out a series of interviews with researchers from a variety of disciplines who have made a societal impact with their research.The interviews revealed some consensus among them about what societal impact means…

"My interpretation is that [societal impact] is essentially knowledge transfer, in the broadest sense of the word. It’s about bringing academic knowledge from research to society. It is when you do something to have impact beyond the specialized audience you write papers for."

– Davide Iannuzzi, university research chair professor in experimental physics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Read the interview.

"In a nutshell, I would say it’s actually easier to say ‘non-academic impact’ – so it’s not about your publishing record, getting tenure, and so on. It’s about the impact your work has outside of that arena."

– Professor Philipp Pattberg, director of the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute (ASI).

Read the interview.

While the researchers we spoke to were passionate about the benefits and importance of the societal impact of research…

"I'm a researcher. And as a researcher, my primary goal is to expand our understanding and knowledge. That's my job description, so to speak. But on a personal level, I derive a lot of my motivation and enthusiasm for doing this from the belief that it matters – beyond the world of academia."

– Floris Peters, postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University and winner of the 2018 FASOS Valorization Prize.

Read the interview.

"There's so much satisfaction to be gained in striving for societal impact. And there's so much to gain for society. If we don't reward this, fewer people will do it or it will be done less intensively, and that's a big loss for society."

– Jutka Halberstadt, assistant professor at the Department of Health Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Read the interview.