Societal Impact of Science 2023

The Societal Impact of Science Conference will be held on-location in Halifax, Canada over 3 days and will focus on stimulating societal impact of science by building stronger, long-term structures for knowledge and data exchange, as well as Public-Private collaboration.

The need for science to tackle challenges our world faces is not a new phenomenon, but has increasingly grown on a global scale, with the world facing pandemics, environmental changes and societal struggles. Policymakers, businesses and other societal actors are increasingly aware of the value of scientific data and knowledge to support them in overcoming challenges, but in many cases the interaction between worlds is not structured or stable enough. For the 11th time in a row AESIS will be organising their annual conference on Societal Impact of Science, to bring together stakeholders in- and outside of the science eco-system to engage with each other on the most effective approaches for implementing policies, strategies, methods and tools to optimise societal impact of science and evaluate success.

In 2023, the international conference will be hosted in Halifax, Canada. This conference will feature highly regarded and internationally recognised experts who will be discussing the contribution of research to the quality of life and well-being. The conference expects over 250 participants from more than 30 countries, bringing together experts such as R&D evaluators, university managers, research councils, policy makers, funders, and other stakeholders of impact. The goal is sharing, evaluating, and discussing best practices around the world on: policy strategies for societal impact, creating (long-term) alliances between stakeholders; regional, national, and international instruments for evaluating and achieving impact; current issues on i.e. public engagement, evidence-based policy, interdisciplinary approaches, and harmonising definitions and assumptions. We are very excited to be working with our colleagues in Canada and elsewhere in the world to create the most valuable programme and experience for all of you who would like to learn about and contribute to science transforming the world.

Selection of topics that we tackle:

• Demonstrating and evaluating societal impact of science
• Transforming policies and strategies for impact
• Most prominent obstacles for improving societal impact of science
• Building stronger structures for knowledge exchange and collaboration in science eco-systems for improved societal impact
• Collaboration between science and society for greater impact