Social Impact Type

The type of social impact (political, health‑related, technological, economic, legal, cultural, social, or environmental) was specified for each submitted social impact case study at the discretion of the applicants for assessment. Applicants also had the option to select a ninth category, “other”, instead of one of the eight predefined impact types; in this case, they were required to explicitly name the type of impact that did not fall under the listed categories.

Most social impact case studies may relate to more than one type of impact; however, within the application it was necessary to specify only one impact type for each submitted case study. Where multiple social impact case studies were submitted within a single application, the impact types of these case studies could differ. For example, when submitting two social impact case studies in an application in the field of Economics and Business, it was acceptable for one case study to have a social impact type and the other a political impact type (or another type).

The selected impact type has no effect on the assessment of social impact. The specification of the impact type serves a separate purpose for analytical work and for enabling search functionality within the case study database, which may help identify additional dimensions of social impact. It represents an indicative classification, not a precise delimitation of the described social impact.

Examples of individual TYPES of social impact:

  • Political: supranational, European, national governmental and local strategies and directives, public‑sector policies, various institutional practices
  • Economic: funding, the commercial sector, internal accounting and financial practices, budgetary policies, income generation
  • Social: education, employment, lifestyle, population and demographic instruments, social services
  • Technological: technological advances and development, innovation, scientific discoveries, changes in information technologies, cybersecurity threats, computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation
  • Legal: legislative change, development of a legal principle or influence on legal practice, changes in regulations and legal frameworks, development of guidelines, access to justice
  • Environmental: climate change, environmental guidelines, rules and regulations, resource management, recycling, sustainability, changes in environmental pollution levels, environmental awareness among consumers, producers, or suppliers
  • Health‑related: public health, health awareness, disease control, patient or user conditions, new clinical interventions, diagnostic technologies, access to medicines and treatment, changes in care practices, health measures, animal health and living conditions
  • Cultural: preservation of cultural heritage and traditions, cultural artefacts, new forms of artistic expression, cultural tourism, intellectual property, cultural understanding and new ways of thinking