1.4 From words to deeds: concrete actions to reward and assess societal impact

Sharon Unsworth, Annelinde Vandenbroucke, Jeanette Mostert

RadboudUMC

Achieving societal impact through science communication and public engagement is an important part of research, but is not yet rewarded as such. Although universities generally appreciate the efforts made by science communicators – whether they are researchers, communication specialists, or both – structural time for such activities and career prospects for those who pursue them remain limited. In this workshop we will work together to formulate concrete actions and recommendations to reward societal impact for all these kinds of science communicators. Questions we will discuss include: What forms could rewarding societal impact take? For example, can organising a public event substitute writing a high impact paper? Should we make science communication part of annual appraisal criteria? And if so, how can we assess the quality of any societal impact activities? Or should we create new job profiles for embedded science communicators or public engagement stewards, where science communication and public engagement are an official (and substantial) part of the job description? We invite science communicators of all kinds, research directors and policy makers to exchange good practices, experiences and ideas, so that we can go from words to deeds.