Support tool for evaluating the societal impact of sustainability research

How can the societal impact of sustainability research projects be measured? And what methods are suitable to assess and strengthen societal impact? This project develops and evaluates a practical support tool designed to help research teams navigate and apply impact-oriented evaluation approaches.

Research projects addressing societal challenges are increasingly expected to demonstrate their societal relevance and transformative impact. In response, many projects use impact-oriented approaches such as Theories of Change to plan and reflect on possible pathways to engage with the political sphere and society in order to contribute to sustainable development.

Despite that, research teams often face difficulties when deciding how societal impacts should actually be evaluated. A wide range of evaluation methods and frameworks exists, but there is little guidance on how to select, combine, and apply them in ways that fit different research contexts, objectives, available expertise, and impact pathways.

To address this gap, the SCNAT Platform Science and Policy (SAP) is developing a practical, easy-to-use support tool for sustainability research. The tool is designed to support research teams identify, select, and combine suitable methods for assessing and strengthening societal and transformative impacts.

The project focuses particularly on research initiatives working at the interface between science, policy, and society. During the start-up phase in 2026, the approach will be explored and tested using selected case studies from SCNAT SAP communities, including projects such as ValPar.CH - Nature‘s values and services and Extremes - Building Resilience for an Uncertain Future.

The objectives for 2026 are:

• To develop a practical support tool that support sustainability research teams choose suitable impact-oriented evaluation methods.
• To create a structured decision logic, operationalised as a decision tree, translating conceptual considerations into concrete methodological choices.
• To prepare the foundation for a larger follow-up project from 2027 onwards involving additional partners and users.

The start-up phase runs until the end of 2026 and is funded through seed funding for sustainability-oriented projects under the Sustainability Research Initiative of SCNAT.

The project team consists of Dr. Roger Keller (project leader, SCNAT SAP), Dr. Astrid Björnsen (project mandatee, WSL) and Dr. Iago Otero (project mandatee). An advisory group with representatives from FoLAP, FOK-SNP, ProClim, SRI, Forum Biodiversity, td-net, SCNAT SAP, SNF, SEVAL, SWEET provides strategic guidance.