Introducing productive interactions in social impact assessment

We aim to overcome these problems through a different approach to evaluation where learning is the prime concern instead of judging. We focus on what goes on between researchers and other actors, and so narrow the gap between research and impact, or at least make it transparent. And by making the process visible, we are able to suggest indicator categories that arguably lead to more robust measuring instruments. We propose three categories of what we refer to as ‘productive interactions’: direct or personal interactions; indirect interactions through texts or artefacts; and financial interactions through money or ‘in kind’ contributions.

The paper is based on case studies in four different fields of research (health, ICT, nanosciences and social sciences), in four different countries (France, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK).

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 230330.

DOI: 10.3152/095820211X12941371876742.

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