Societal impact assessment methodologies

Because of its extremely broad spectrum, and the questions that continue to weigh on its definition, the societal impact of research is much trickier to assess than its scientific impact. At the scale of a project, an institute or an individual researcher, this undertaking is made even more difficult by questions of attribution, causality and temporality, which complicate access to complete information on societal impact. Despite these difficulties, a large number of methodologies have been developed over the years, some of which are currently being implemented at national level.