Adolfo Morais, Deputy Councillor of Universities and Research, Basque Government; Jon Bilbao, Labour Relations manager of Confebask; Iain Cameron, EU and UK independent expert; Marta Soler, Director of CREA, University of Barcelona; and Cristina Iturrioz, Vice Rector of Research and Transfer, University of Deusto; met at the University of Deusto on November 7 for a conference entitled “Social Impact of Science and EU Research Agenda”. The aim was to highlight the role of social impact in the research and knowledge transfer generated at universities.

Various key issues were discussed. One or the most outstanding was the growing demand for closer collaboration and joint work channels between universities and other social agents to solve specific problems and promote building a fairer more inclusive society.

The main challenges in this field, such as definition of the very concept of social impact, adding value to the Social and Human Sciences and measurement of said impact, systematisation and guaranteeing free access to science  were also discussed

The conclusions drawn by the participants include reflections on the difficulty of a linear attribution system for research results, their effects on social impact and the importance of measurement in the long term.

The conference closed with the speakers’ signing a Declaration for promoting the social impact of university research. .