Beyond established impact assessment approaches in STI policy

This track aims to discuss new theoretical and empirical approaches related to studies of the impact of research. It is situated in one of the main topics of the Conference: “Evaluating economic, social, and environmental research outcomes”. It is organised by the Oslo Institute for Research on the Impact of Science- OSIRIS (http://www.sv.uio.no/tik/english/research/projects/osiris/) inviting two papers from colleagues of the Research quality and policy impact R-Quest (http://www.r-quest.no

The social and economic impact of research has become an increasingly significant issue in the STI policy debate, and the analysis of the effects of research has long been the subject of many scientific investigations and numerous evaluations of research fields, organisations and funding instruments. Early studies tried in particular to measure the economic returns to research and development (R&D), but current perspectives encourage mixed methods and highlight different types of impact for a variety of stakeholders in a larger system. The impact literature and the use of the term in policy environments reflects such wider expectations from research including but going beyond the economic effects. The concept also emerges at the interface between science and innovation policy.