Do they know it’s impact time at all? How researchers outline societal impact in research council applications

Abstract

Societal impact has turned into an important criterion for evaluating research funding proposals, yet a universal understanding about how to approach ex-ante impact evaluation is yet to materialise. Moreover, the researchers’ own perspectives on how to express the societal impact of research in the context of applying for funding is largely unexplored. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the understanding and practice of ex-ante impact evaluation by analysing in detail the impact section of research proposals (N=379) submitted to the Research Council of Norway (RCN) and their associated evaluation reports. The study is based on a mixed-methods analysis of proposals submitted to three different research fields (health, education and marine) and two different calls (basic versus applied) in each of them. In this way, we are able to isolate factors associated with disciplinary differences and competing signals within the science system between the concepts of ‘societal’ versus ‘scientific’ impact.