Impact of research on society

As I experiment in the sketch noting world, I use as my test topic an excellent article from academics at Charles Stuart University.

Societal impact has come under intense discussion lately in Australia as the Government prepares to trial an Assessment and Impact Framework from 2018, with a pilot to be run in 2017.  This will be the first time that institutions nationwide will be involved in an assessment of this nature, which is touted to be along the lines of the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF).

But what is societal impact?  According to the Australian Research Council (ARC), impact is

"the demonstrable contribution that research makes to the economy, society, culture, national security, public policy or service, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond contributions to academia" (ARC Research Impact Principles and Framework).

This has started many conversations by worried university administrators as to how such impact can be measured.

This is where this article, and my naive efforts at sketch noting, helps us to understand.  Bracing for Impact: The role of information science in supporting societal impact, by Lisa Given, Wade Kelly and Rebekah Willson, was presented at the ASIST 2015 Annual Meeting held in the United States.