Online, hosted from Krakow, Poland
November 4-6, 2020; To register click here
The Annual Impact of Science Conference
Science funders and research program designers are constantly challenged to maintain an effective and efficient science funding system, while justifying the investments in scientific research towards politics. The pressure increases on governmental and non-governmental science funding organizations to demonstrate the economical and societal returns on their investments in science.
All around the world, experts are improving the process of measuring and communicating the impact of science on society. For example, Poland is introducing a new Model of Research Quality Assessment covering i.a. economic and societal impact of research and development, which is a crucial aspect of comprehensive reform of the science and higher education system introduced by the Law on Higher Education and Science.
Research with societal impact involves different stakeholders from researchers, policymakers, research councils, local municipalities and beyond, and therefore also different causal logics, different expectations for impact and different timelines for social impacts to occur, as well as different scale effects. There is a need for societal impact measurement and advancement, but therefore we need to co-develop effective systems to adapt existing national or regional frameworks and guide coordinated actions involving academic and non-academic actors in government, industry and society as a whole.
The annual conference ‘Impact of Science' has been successfully organized seven times, bringing together experts such as R&D evaluators, university managers, research councils, policy makers, funders, and other stakeholders of impact. The goal is sharing, evaluating, and discussing best practices around the world on:
Policy strategies for societal impact
Creating (long-term) alliances between stakeholders
Regional, national, and international instruments for evaluating and achieving impact
Current issues on i.e. public engagement, evidence-informed policy, interdisciplinary approaches, and harmonizing definitions and assumptions.
The political momentum and current research eco-system in Poland are an excellent and inspirational context to foster the worldwide debate on impact. At the same time, several international perspectives can offer valuable and critical evaluations to the current progress and obstacles in Poland. The AESIS Network and its partners are excited to virtually welcome you at the ‘Impact of Science 2020’ online conference hosted from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.
Click here to view program or to register.