1. ESRC Symposium: New approaches to assessing the impact of social science research Grafton Hotel, London, May 12-13, 2005 Impact of Social Research – a Nordic perspective Director Merete Konnerup, Nordic Campbell Center (NC2)

2. Nordic Campbell Center Inaugurated 2002 with main focus on Social Work & Welfare Policies First regional centre in the Campbell Collaboration Budget: £ ½ million/year financed by the Danish Government Presently financing and supporting 10 + reviews-in-progress WWW.NC2.NET

3. Why funding? And why now? Reasons: Limits to growth of Nordic welfare state Users/tax payers demand more & better services

4. The Nordic Welfare State S.O.S Budget XXX

5. Why funding? And why now? Reasons: Limits to growth of Nordic welfare state (social services 13 per cent of GDP) Users/tax payers demand more & better services Result: Increased need for prioritization Increased demands for credible documentation of impact Question: What Works?

6. Decisions - what are they based on? Experience & expert opinions Judgemen t Resources Pragmatism, contingencies Values Habits & traditions Public opinion & pressure groups Evidence

7. Social Science fields informing policy & practice Evidence Implimentation… Economic/ econometric… Descriptive analytical … Attitudinal… Ethical… Statistical modeling … Effect…

8. Practice and policy must be documented Researcher must do high quality impact studies Impact studies must be synthesized What does it take to inform policy and practice on the impact of interventions?

9. Some key players in the impact game Impact Public employee Politician Social Scientist Generel public Media

10. Politician/general public & impact of research Barriers Enablers Needs a story Needs timeliness Needs availability High quality intermediate institutions

11. Media & impact of research Barriers Enablers Needs a story Needs clear statements Needs them now The media loves researchers Strong social science tradition for participating in public debate

12. Public employee & impact of research Barriers Solutions Dont necessarily miss research Lack of strong critical appraisal skills Strong tradition for freedom of choice of method Tools for pushing research More focus on continuing education More collaboration between public employees and researchers

13. Social Scientist & impact of research Barriers Enablers Few master high quality studies of the effect of interventions Suspiciousness towards applied policy research Suspiciousness towards generalization of results Which interventions work needs to be combined with what works in dissemi- nation & implimen- tation More interdisciplinary collaboration More research on transferability