Working on impact and contributing to R&I policies – looking back and ahead

Abstract

This article presents impact case studies at research project and organisational levels by exploiting the Horizon Europe concept of pathways to impact and the proposed indicators. In Horizon Europe, which is the European Commission’s funding programme for research and innovation, time-sensitive Key Impact Pathways and related indicators are used as a tool for assessing the different types of impact: scientific, societal, and economic. Based on many years of experience with stakeholder engagement and impact, the authors focus on the indicators for assessing societal impact. In this way, the authors would like to contribute to the discussion on creating societal impact through research projects and institutional strategies. Leading questions are 1) Can Research & Innovation (R&I) policies be improved by using Horizon Europe Key Impact Pathways and related indicators? And 2) Can an institutional impact project and even a research project benefit from using Horizon Europe indicators and at the same time feed into R&I policies?