Research, Technology and Innovation policy is more than ever charged with demonstrating societal impact. This raises new issues at all levels of policy design, implementation and evaluation.

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?

Contact:

Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation (office@fteval.at)

The conference is organised by

• fteval – The Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation
• Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester
• IFRIS - Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation Société, Paris