This conference is therefore devoted to the challenge of generating and understanding societal impact through RTI policy. It discusses new policy rationales and new demands for RTI policy in service of society, reflects challenges in RTI policy-making triggered by these rationales and demands, and scrutinises what is expected and delivered from different policy intelligence approaches, in particular impact assessment and evaluation.

Key questions addressed by the conference are:

• How does RTI policy anticipate, integrate and address societal impacts?
• What implications arise from a focus on impact for policy design and implementation?
• How can societal impact of RTI policy interventions be conceptualised and measured?
• How can the design and implementation of RTI policies aiming for societal impact be supported?
• How can new forms of open innovation and citizen-driven innovations be better addressed, supported and assessed?
• How can impact, both intended and unintended, be evaluated?
• What can the RTI community learn from evaluation practices in other policy domains?

The conference explicitly addresses

• policy-makers from the field of R&I and other policy domains
• public and private funding agencies and research and innovation councils
• policy analysts and evaluation experts from various thematic backgrounds and researchers from business and academia.

A call for extended abstracts and posters was launched on 8 March 2018 (www.impactevaluation.eu).

The conference is organised on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology by the Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research and IFRIS - Institut Francilien Recherche, Innovation et Société, Paris.

Reports from the conference

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In case of further information requests please contact:

Ms. Doris Kaiserreiner, kaiserreiner@fteval.at