Societal impact of transdisciplinary and participatory research: A guide for assessment

Transdisciplinary and participatory research (TDPR) is characterised by its intention to achieve not only scientific but also societal impact. This raises the questions: What is societal impact? How can the impact potential of TDPR be assessed? In an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a guide that identifies criteria and exemplary indicators for assessing societal effects and impact potential in TDPR. The guide contributes to systematising the range of criteria of societal effects and supports the operationalisation of these criteria for evaluation and monitoring. In addition to criteria for direct effects (outcome) and indirect effects (impact), we also list criteria for process quality, as these have a significant influence on the generation of impact potential in TDPR.

The guide is intended to enable researchers from different disciplines and (research) communities to identify different types of effects that are relevant for their respective research projects and develop appropriate evaluation and monitoring concepts. For formative evaluation, it also supports reflection on one's own approaches to assessing societal effects of TDPR, as well as on the potential and limitations of impact evaluation.