4. Measuring societal impact: the contribution of metrics

Whatever the definition and methodology used to assess societal impacts, they must be demonstrated rather than assumed. However, among other limitations, the collection of indicators represents a major financial and time investment, not least because of the multiple forms they can take. This multiplicity also makes it difficult to compare evaluations from different institutions or disciplines requiring uniform indicators.

As a result, there have been increasing calls for the development of generalizable data collection methods that can reduce the economic and time burden of evaluations. It has been suggested, for example, that the collection of impact evidence under the UK's REF is likely to be carried out in future via the use of automatic data capture tools