ALLINTERACT impact
Grounded on the perspective of social impact of research, ALLINTERACT project seeks to go beyond scientific impact of research to also achieve political and social impact from the beginning of the project.
Thus, ALLINTERACT intends not only to promote the dissemination of project results among institutions, companies, NGOs, and citizens, but to ensure their transference, which takes place when policy-makers, NGOs, or citizens use the research results to carry out their interventions, and Social Impact, which occurs when this transference leads to the improvement of citizens’ lives according to their own goals, such as the SDG.
Bearing the above mentioned in mind, ALLINTERACT has successfully engaged diverse citizens, especially from vulnerable communities (ethnic minorities, low SES backgrounds, LGBTQI groups, young and vulnerable women, etc), in scientific research with social impact. In this section we present some of the scientific, political and social impacts which are leading to a profound and quick revolution in citizen engagement in science worldwide.
Scientific impact
So far, 7 scientific articles have been published:
- In top-rated indexed journals, all of them in 1st or 2nd quartiles in JCR and/or Scopus-indexed journals.
- Based on knowledge co-created in ALLINTERACT.
- Each of the articles has received more than 1,000 views and downloads, some more than 5,000 (except those published in 2023).
- They have been widely disseminated among social media, in many cases by citizens: more than 130 shares on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Wikipedia, and digital newspapers. These results suggest that not only are the scientific community and citizens accessing and consulting the scientific evidence of social impact of the ALLINTERACT project, but that they are also disseminating such evidence.
Political impact
In ALLINTERACT’s Final Conference on March 27th 2023, Stefaan Hermans, Director for Policy Strategy and Evaluation, D. G. on Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission, highlighted the great political (and social) impacts achieved by ALLINTERACT. Hermans stated that ALLINTERACT’s dialogic approach promotes democracy through the inclusion of the voices of all people and the very active engagement of citizens in science of social impact.
- A Social Media Analytics research (Pulido Rodriguez et al., 2021) conducted on Twitter has allowed us to see the impact of Sappho related to Spanish government campaigns against love. From 2015 to 2020, the hoax “love kills” was being disseminated in Twitter by autonomic and national campaigns in Spain. This statement was contested on the Sappho platform through a post entitled “ Love does not kill” published in September 2020. Through the egalitarian dialogue based on scientific evidence on the platform, it was clarified that there was strong evidence supporting that love does not kill and that, therefore, the statement “love kills” is a hoax with harmful consequences for the health and life of people. As a result of this, in 2023, no political campaigns against love have been found in the analysis conducted. This impact on politics has strong implications on future policy measures and will save the life of many people through the prevention of violence.
- The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is making use of the Sappho platform as a key resource for their worldwide strategy in their training to eliminate sexual abuse of children and adults in the Jesuits Global institution worldwide. They have commissioned a member of CREA-UB team from ALLINTERACT’s consortium to provide the scientific evidence in this action to eliminate sexual abuse.
- The European Commission’s Network of Experts working on the Social dimension of Education and Training (NESET) commissioned ALLINTERACT’s Principal Investigator, Ramon Flecha, and two other members the report “Achieving student well-being for all: educational contexts free of violence” ( Flecha, Puigvert and Racionero-Plaza, 2023).
- The Spanish government commissioned Ramon Flecha the White Book of the Inclusive Communication of Science ( FECYT, 2022).
Social impact
The Scientific Evidence Platforms Sappho and Adhyayana have also achieved numerous and diverse social impacts in different contexts:
- Schools in different settings, including those located in low SES backgrounds, have used the platforms to engage in Dialogic Scientific Gatherings. For instance, many schools chose a post categorized as Scientific Evidence on Adhyayana about the importance and the benefits of friendship. In the gatherings, students shared their own reflections and arguments on the need for friendships to improve their lives, including the prevention of bullying.
- These gatherings are also implemented with diverse adults worldwide, including parents. Some of the social impact include parents engaging in egalitarian dialogues about the best education for their children or on how to best tackle bullying in their children’s environments.
- The impact of the platforms has reached teenagers, Roma women and young men, among others, as can be seen in the project’s YouTube channel.
- Related to bullying, as a result of ALLINTERACT’ Science Game Jam, different children and adults participated in the co-creation of the first videogame to help children distinguish scientific evidence from hoaxes on bullying: “ BE BRAVE”. Although it has been recently launched, in its beta version many children who have already played the video game are enjoying it and learning how they should act according to scientific evidence of social impact when witnessing or suffering bullying.
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