Impact Skills

In addition to science popularization and communication skills, there is a need in the scientific field to strengthen expertise related to science brokerage and a more comprehensive understanding of societal interaction. We develop tools and publish guidelines to support the work of researchers and science brokers.

Researcher’s Handbook compiles methods for interaction between science and decision-making

Our published guide Researcher’s Handbook: Keys to Societal Impact (2024) contains concrete instructions for increasing the impact of research, information on possible roles for researchers in supporting decision-making, and various routes through which research information can be conveyed to decision-makers.

The guide also includes general information about the interaction between science and decision-making, researchers’ experiences, and tips from various actors on responding to decision-makers’ information needs.

The handbook is intended especially for beginners in the field science impact, but provides food for thought also for the more experienced researchers and others interested.

The printed book can be purchased from Tiedekirja.fi website.

The Researcher’s Handbook originated from impact training sessions organized by the Academy, which we developed together with the Young Academy Finland. The training sessions identified a need to strengthen researchers’ impact skills beyond science communication.

From Science to Decision-Making – lessons for increasing the impact of science

Our online course From Science to Decision-Making – How to Promote Research Impact? offers understanding of

the societal background of interaction between research and decision-making,
researcher roles in supporting decision-making, and
various routes through which research information is conveyed to decision-making.

The course is freely available both on our website and through the doctoral education network FinDocNet. Universities can incorporate the course into their curriculum.

We have also been involved in developing other courses dealing with research impact:

We serve on the steering group of the University of Helsinki’s MOOC online course and have designed and implemented course content. The online course is aimed particularly at those in the early stages of their research career and is openly available to everyone on the DigiCampus platform. Explore the course here.
We discuss, among other things, the information needs of decision-making in the video materials of the joint online course “As a Scientific Expert in Political Decision-Making” by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, eOppiva, and the INVEST Research Centre. The course is intended especially for beginning researchers, developers, and experts in state expert institutions. Explore the course on eOppiva’s website (only in Finnish).

How to? – Guidelines and tools to support the work of knowledge brokers

Freely downloadable How-To Tools offer science brokers tools and guidelines for finding experts, refining information needs, and creating phenomenon-based knowledge syntheses.