Towards assessing the societal impact of research

History has witnessed frequent variations in the relationship between research and society, notably through the evolution of the point of view adopted by its political institutions. Sometimes indifferent or critical, these institutions were also at the origin of the structuring of scientific organizations, and were in fact often subservient to them. Ferdinand II de' Medici and one of his brothers, for example, founded the Accademia del Cimento, just as Charles II granted a charter to the Royal Society of London and sponsored the Greenwich Observatory, the French Academy of Sciences was created by Colbert and placed under the protection of Louis XIV, and that of St. Petersburg was instituted by Peter the Great. Claiming relative autonomy in the mid-twentieth century, public research was gradually forced to account for its performance and quality at the end of the century, leading to a change...