Assessing the societal impact of publicly funded research

Irwin Feller ()
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Irwin Feller: The Pennsylvania State University

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2022, vol. 47, issue 3, No 2, 632-650

Abstract: Abstract The paper offers a critical overview of recent conceptual and methodological endeavors to elevate the policy saliency of societal impacts as a criterion for formulating and assessing societal impacts. Beginning with an overview of the historical context for the contemporary rise to prominence of societal impacts as a criterion for allocating and assessing public research funds, it unpacks embedded, compound propositions that connect the governance of science to the design and implementation of assessment methodologies that satisfy the joint criteria of policy relevance and technical rigor. In doing so, it highlights analytical and methodological differences between ex ante rationales for increased attention to societal impacts and ex post assessments of the character and magnitude of these impacts. It next appraises the utility of different modes of evaluation, singling out those it deems best suited to the tasks at hand, while questioning the soundness of other contemporary approaches. It closing section calls attention to the problematic, indeed at points chimerical, character of endeavors to endeavor to link the political and normative elements embedded in calls for increased attention to societal impacts with structured program evaluations.

Keywords: Societal impacts; Performance measurement; Assessment methodology; Evaluation design; Distributive justice; Ex ante resource allocation; Ex post assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D04 H11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10961-017-9602-z

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