The objectives of the project are to:

1. Identify productive interactions between researchers and society in four fields (nanotechnology, health, ICT and social sciences) that are funded within the Framework Program and in national contexts. For each of these fields we will analyse the range of expected and actual social impacts, and the interactions through which these impacts are realised.

2. Improve our understanding of the necessity of productive interactions as a condition for research to have a social impact.

3. Develop approaches and tools for the evaluation of social impacts that are applicable in a range of fields and evaluation contexts, with a strong emphasis on the feasibility of the suggested mechanisms.