Knowledge utilisation

Society faces increasingly complex challenges for which solutions must be found, such as the energy transition, the manageability of care, or climate change. New knowledge and insights from scientific research can make an important contribution to solutions for societal challenges of today and tomorrow. Knowledge utilization increases the chance of societal impact of research and is therefore an important part of NWO's strategy.

Via knowledge utilisation towards societal impact

Knowledge utilisation is seen as an iterative process towards social impact. The coordination of researchers and potential knowledge users increases the chance of knowledge utilisation. And with that the chance of social impact.

Through its knowledge utilisation policy, NWO promotes the possible contribution from research to social issues by stimulating productive interactions with social stakeholders. Both during the development and in the execution of the research. NWO's knowledge utilisation policy encourages activities that are within the scope of a project (consortium), appropriate to the funding line.

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    Knowledge utilisation within our instruments

    Not every financing instrument focuses to the same extent on increasing the chance of social impact. NWO applies three approaches to do justice to the various expectations in the area of societal impact. These focus in varying and proportional ways on stimulating knowledge utilisation. The three impact approaches are the Impact Outlook, Impact Plan and Impact Focus approach. Within the approaches different activities fit from the beginning of the research formulation, during the implementation and after the research.

    To facilitate (unforeseen) opportunities for social impact during the term:

    Impact Outlook Approach

    For contributing to social issues:

    Impact Plan Approach

    For applying already developed knowledge and insights:

    Impact Focus Approach 

Animationfilm: Three impact approaches of NWO

How can we increase the chances of research making an impact on society? To do this NWO has developed three approaches: impact outlook, impact plan en impact focus. In the animation below these are introduced.