The working group "Impacts" was established at the annual assembly of the Society for Transdisciplinary and Participatory Research (GTPF) on 22.11.2023 in Chemnitz on the initiative of the ZTG and ISOE. In March, the working group will be officially established by the GTPF Board. It addresses topics that are also dealt with prominently at tdAcademy. The group's first working meeting took place on January 29, 2024 with 36 participants from a wide range of disciplines and institutions involved in participatory, transdisciplinary and citizen science. They were all united by an interest in and experience with impact assessment. The participants agreed on key topics that will be worked on in three subgroups.
The first topic group "Indicators and methods for measuring social impact" is coordinated by Friederike Holtmann, Martina Schäfer and Elise Werner. The discussion within the group revealed interest in the following topics: Non-intended impacts, methods and indicators for measuring (qualitative) impacts, diversity of methods, measurement of short-, medium- and long-term impacts, changes in knowledge and culture, and participatory planning of evaluation (and indicators of success). The more precise focus will be determined in the first meeting of this topic group.
The second topic group "Conception and measurement of scientific impact" is coordinated by Jana Semrau and Lena Theiler. Their discussion focused on the evaluation of scientific impact, impact on researchers, impact on science from the individual to the content to the institutional level and the question of interfaces / overlaps with social impact.
The third topic group "Impact-oriented management" is coordinated by Susanne Schuck-Zöller and Emilia Nagy. The central topics of the group are dealing with conflicting goals of social and scientific impact orientation, the normative ideas in striving for and recording impact as well as methods that are developed together with the addressees in order to strengthen impact potential.
Other interested persons are warmly invited to join one or more topic groups. If you are interested, please contact Martina Schäfer (schaefer@ztg.tu-berlin.de).