What is societal impact?
Societal impact is defined and applied in various ways. Policymakers relevant to our field define it as the use of scientific results by people in the field such as care professionals, policymakers, companies, educators, patients or clients. The following definition is also clean and a very simple one:
Impact is the effect of our research in ‘the real world’ or society
Challenges we want to address or solve…
For Amsterdam UMC societal impact is also important. Amsterdam UMC considers it a duty to contribute to (innovation in the field of) the major societal issues of today (see: Position Paper Valorization Amsterdam UMC: from academic knowledge to societal impact). Think for example at some of these following challenges in the public health domain: the increasingly aging population in relation to quality of life, increasing mental health issues among young people, increasing proportion of the population struggling with chronic conditions due to an unhealthy lifestyle.
Given these societal challenges, and others, and the scientific field of Public Health and its societal relevance, APH does expect all APH researchers to show ambition at their own level to explore and take up impact opportunities with the right support.