Midterm self-evaluation NWA-ORC: working towards societal impact 02/12

The aim of the NWA-ORC programme is to facilitate research that leads to societal and/or scientific breakthroughs. The programme encourages research across the knowledge chain and in inter- or transdisciplinary consortia, in which researchers will collaborate with relevant societal (public and private) partners and, where relevant, with citizens as well. In these collaborations, new knowledge flows from researcher to user, and new questions from professional practice and from society find a way into new research.

An important element of the NWA-ORC projects is the so-called Impact Plan. The Impact Plan describes how the consortium expect to realise societal impact and the role that productive interactions[1] play in this. It shows how achieving the expected impact has been integrated into the research design and what role consortium partners and stakeholders from the fields of policy, practice and industry play in this.

During the course of their NWA-ORC project, consortia submit an annual progress report to NWO, describing their scientific progress and the progress towards Impact, but also whether their Impact Plan needs adjustment on certain points. Connected to this progress report, the consortium meets their Advisory Committee to discuss their progress. In addition to the annual progress reports and annual meetings with the Advisory Committee, part of the current NWA-ORC projects are expected to participate in a midterm self-evaluation workshop, where they take the time to reflect on their progress towards Impact more elaborately and to discuss the way forward. This workshop is organised by NWO in collaboration with the Lorentz Center.

In this particular workshop, selected NWA-ORC consortia have the opportunity to actively exchange their experiences with working towards impact,. What are the effective elements in your projects that translate research into impact? What are the best practices and barriers in working from research towards societal impact? After the mid-term self-evaluation workshop, they have been inspired and have fresh ideas on how to proceed further towards societal impact. Given the specific nature of the NWA ORC projects, these very diverse consortia can learn a lot from each other,

On 2 December, three NWA-ORC consortia will participate:

• The Virtual Human Platform for Safety Assessment
• An Internet of Secure Things - INTERSECT | NWO
• Improving urban green infrastructure by incorporating hidden biodiversity networks

[1] Productive interactions acquire shape when all parties in the consortium are actively involved in all phases of the research process: from the formulation of the research questions through to the elaboration of the approach to answer these questions and the realisation of the desired scientific and societal breakthroughs.