Societal impact of research and its assessment: Organisations' perspectives

Objective

Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (Tieteellisten seurain valtuuskunta, TSV) launched a project in January 2023 to promote the assessment of the societal impact of research in line with responsible assessment practices. The aim of the project was to provide information on impact assessment, taking into account the specific characteristics of different research disciplines and types of organisations, and to promote a culture of responsible assessment by highlighting the importance of different researcher profiles.

The first part of the project focused on researchers' views on impact assessment and its results were published in a report in March 2025. This report focuses on the second part of the project, which concentrates on organisation-level views on impact assessment in Finnish universities, state research institutes and universities of applied sciences. In addition to the above, an overview of the impact assessment practices of four case countries was carried out.

Materials

The results presented in the report are based on a variety of data: a survey, interviews and document material. We have also used publicly available data from the Finnish National Agency for Education’s statistics service Vipunen.

Main findings and conclusions

Practices for assessing the societal impact of research vary from one type of organisation to another, depending on the core functions of each organisation, the nature of its research activities and its resources. Organisations' reasons for impact assessment relate to legislative and funder requirements, funding, strategic direction, performance development, self-assessment, and societal expectations. Organisations also seek to highlight the multiple impacts of research on society by monitoring and assessing their research activities.

Universities, state research institutes and universities of applied sciences want stronger national cooperation in developing the assessment of the societal impact of research. The desire for collaboration is particularly related to sharing good practices and learning together, rather than building binding assessment frameworks. The systematic development of impact assessment databases is also considered important. The desire for national cooperation is also related to reducing the burden and financial costs of assessment work.

In developing responsible assessment, it is important to identify the roles of the different actors in the research community and to clarify the impact objectives. There is also a need for coordinated cooperation between different actors in the research community.

In developing assessment practices, it is important to remain sensitive to the diversity of impact. However, it is equally important to recognise that not all impacts can be measured or directly attributed to individual research activities.