No. 47 (2019): Issue #47- – Impact of R&I Policy

Most impact evaluations of R&I policy interventions focus either on scientific-technical effects or on economic effects. For this purpose, suitable indicators, data bases and methods have been created and continuously developed in recent decades. However, the comprehensibility and assessment of social and societal effects of R&I policy interventions has only recently gained new attention. One reason for this is the orientation of R&I policy towards major societal challenges (‘new mission-oriented R&I policy’1). The European Commission’s “Horizon Europe”, the 9th European Research and Innovation
Framework Program, explicitly provides within the second pillar of the next Framework Program specific R&D missions still to be selected. For these missions as well as for the global challenges postulated in Horizon Europe - as in Horizon 2020 - the social impact dimension is highly relevant as it explicitly addresses the goals set by society (for example, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals / SDGs2). In order to better track and measure the impact dimensions of Horizon Europe, an
expert report was presented immediately after the publication of the European Commission’s proposal for Horizon Europe in July 2018, which distinguishes between the following three impact dimensions: (1) scientific impact, (2) societal impact and (3) economic impact. Already the year before, an ERAC ad-hoc working group submitted a report that also argues for different dimensions of impact, but focuses on measuring the impact of European framework programs at national level.