The social impact of research is consolidated in the scientific culture of CREAF

Measuring the success of research is usually associated with publishing in high-impact journals or generating a large number of scientific articles. But this vision needs to be expanded to recognize the diversity of contributions and benefits that scientific knowledge can provide. These benefits can be related to the advancement of knowledge and can also be related to the contributions of research to make it possible to change a law, develop protocols or even change a way of thinking. In order to be able to value this type of results, several countries are already promoting a methodology to evaluate them. In the case of Catalonia, this expanded vision is already a reality for the 42 CERCA centers , including CREAF, which this year 2024 have had to present several impact narratives for the first time. Each of these documents details how a research area has contributed to transforming the world at any scale, and also details how it has been achieved, that is, it traces the path to this impact step by step.

"This new way of evaluating research does not replace the traditional ones, but is an element that is added to those that already exist. It is an opportunity to recognize and value work that researchers have in many cases been doing for years and that until now was not taken into account in the scientific career", explains Anabel Sánchez, head of social impact at CREAF .

In particular, CREAF has presented two narratives, one on soils and the other on landscape ecology , two lines of research that date back more than 25 years and continue to the present day. For example, one of the milestones achieved by the soil group is that its research is at the basis of the design and implementation of protocols for restoring soil with organic materials such as compost, biochar or sewage sludge. This contributes to the urgent challenge of increasing the success in restoring degraded soils and contributing to improving CO₂ storage, increasing the biodiversity they host and making them capable of retaining more water, among other benefits. On the other hand, the landscape ecology team highlights that it has contributed in a very relevant way to changing how regional and local policymakers and land managers in urban areas perceive landscapes, especially in Catalonia and Andalusia. This has improved conservation practices and increased green spaces , which bring obvious benefits for biodiversity but also for society.

"Making the narrative has been almost like doing a life review of my research and realizing the impact it has had on society , that is, its usefulness over the years. It has undoubtedly been an enriching and very valuable job both for the center and for myself," highlights Joan Pino , director of CREAF and who has led the landscape ecology narrative.

Assessing research from this new perspective can be a challenge for researchers. To facilitate this, since taking on the role in 2021, Anabel Sánchez has organized several workshops and presentations open to the entire CREAF to explain what the impact of research is, resolve doubts and begin to provide support so that they can integrate this new perspective. In addition to these activities, she has been meeting with the center's research groups. Thanks to this work, the five lines of research with the greatest potential to be presented in impact narrative format this 2024 at CERCA have been detected. With these five groups, which include experts in pollinators, landscape ecology, soils, biodiversity and forests, meticulous work has been done to identify how they have mobilized knowledge outside academia and the benefits they have generated over the years. As a result of this process, five proto-narratives have been developed and, finally, two have been chosen to finish working on them and present them to the CERCA evaluation. “This exercise has made visible years of interactions between the research community and people outside academia that have led to changes in real life,” says Anabel Sánchez.

" Analyzing my research from this new perspective has helped me value it much more . It has been a learning experience where I have seen that, although it is not linear, there is a path to make our research have an impact on society, such as influencing a policy or helping to make decisions", highlightsMireia Banqué , a CREAF researcher who has participated in the proto-narrative of forests.

Although the objective of a narrative is to evaluate the impact of research, the elements and criteria for evaluating them can be different depending on the context and objectives. In the case of the evaluation promoted by CERCA, which is a pioneer in Catalonia and Spain, very interesting aspects have been included, such as, for example, a detailed account of the path taken by the research to reach the impact , such as communication and interaction activities between researchers and social actors, publications on third-party institutional websites, workshops, working groups or transfer actions. “This way we can also highlight and give value to all the elements and people that make it possible for a research to end up generating impact”, points out Anabel Sánchez. Another important criterion is that the text is written in plain language , where the context of the research and the evidence of the benefits it has generated are clear.

According to the CERCA institution, this first edition has been a starting point and a learning experience, but the impactful narratives "have come to stay."