Speaker
Description
Measuring the impact of science communication within research infrastructures – and beyond – often relies on quantitative indicators: number of views, followers, interactions, event participants, engagement rates, and so on. While these indicators provide a useful overview and help to frame the analysis of communication outcomes, they rarely reflect the depth of engagement, the transformation of perceptions, or the contextual meaning of communication practices.
This contribution explores how a social sciences and humanities (SSH) perspective can enrich the understanding of communication impact in scientific contexts, moving from measurement to meaning. Building on early work conducted within IBISBA, a European research infrastructure dedicated to industrial biotechnology, this presentation combines traditional analytical methods with qualitative approaches, including narrative analysis, stakeholder feedback, assessments of qualitative influence, and changes in representations.
Through this mixed-method approach, we aim to identify how communication strategies contribute not only to visibility, but also to shared understanding, policy dialogue, science–society interaction, and community building. By highlighting the added value of qualitative insights, this contribution seeks to propose a framework for assessing communication impact that aligns with the broader goals of open, inclusive, and reflexive science.
