1. Magnus Gulbrandsen Consortium meeting, Valencia, 10-11 October 2018
OSIRIS so far
Magnus Gulbrandsen
Consortium meeting, Valencia, October 2018

2. Our overall goal
To understand how and under which condition impact takes place – in a way that generates new knowledge, contributes to excellent research and helps users and policymakers to improve their strategies and policies

3. Research questions
How can we identify impact and the processes that lead to it?
Under which conditions does research lead to economic and social effects over time?
How does impact vary between research fields and societal sectors?
How can we shape science policy and framework conditions so that it stimulates impact?

4. Main ideas
Our overarching goals are to better understand the antecedents for and ways in which science makes an impact
We see impact as a process rather than a specific outcome
Our empirical work primarily looks at this process from the user side
We study three stylised pathways: impacts in policymaking, healthcare and industry
OSIRIS work critical of the mainstream way in which impact is operationalised and measured
My experience so far: the field is more fragmented and less sophisticated that I thought

5. Status so far Nice and interesting work, scaling up from autumn 2018
Organisational-practical challenges in all partner organisations beyond our control
Seven scientific articles, two special issues, 30+ presentations at conferences and workshops, 30+ presentations at courses and meetings with practitioners
We are doing well in terms of deliverables – we should probably emphasise policy-oriented activities even more next year
Lots of external interest in what we do and the approach that we take
We should continue putting the OSIRIS mark on our work so that our unique approach is visible in as many activities as possible

6. Recent developments
We are now defined as a “researcher project” rather than a “user- oriented” project – this is mainly formal and influences our reporting
We have organised two successful younger researcher events (PhD course, EU-SPRI summer school)
We have a much larger team in Oslo now and will start to have regular OSIRIS meetings (discussing literature, work in progress etc.) every second week – everyone is welcome here
Blog/web pages updated with new look, blog is going fairly well and seems to be accepted as our “policy briefs”, bad routines for news items and presentations
We have some ideas for 10% collaborative work for 2019 (survey and course proceeding), new suggestions are welcome

7. Important discussion points
Strengthening and promoting the OSIRIS profile and unique approach
Improving integration between partners
Strengthening the user side of OSIRIS
Making a clearer plan for publications and other outputs
Improving routines and practical issues

8. Conceptual work
The conceptual working paper has been scrapped in favour of 3-4 blog posts about its key ideas/topics
Two conceptual academic papers are work in progress and have toured the conference circuit – they will be discussed tomorrow
Workshop on survey work in Manchester early 2018 led to pilot survey to Norwegian public organisations
We will need a similar workshop for the cases (for later discussion)