How to recognise your role in the transformation

Placing human activity within the planet’s boundaries – in other words, achieving sustainability transformation – is an enormous task that cannot be accomplished alone. Yet every researcher has a role to play in this transformation. Here’s how to recognise yours.

Text: Enni Sahlman
Photo: Annukka Pakarinen

While my earlier piece argued that every researcher can foster sustainability transformation, this one emphasises that no one can achieve the transformation on their own. The change is so extensive and far-reaching – touching all structures of society – that it can only happen through collective effort. However, an individual researcher can identify their own role within this broader process. There are tools for doing so, which I will discuss in this text.

At the Nessling Foundation, we speak of the active researcher. An active researcher recognises their role in the sustainability transformation and consciously decides to take part in making it happen. I argue that every researcher who links their work to the sustainability transformation also carries the responsibility to consider their societal impact – that is, their contribution to making the transformation real. In this text, the means of societal impact refer mainly to different forms of communication and interaction.

Before you can begin to understand your own role in the sustainability transformation, it is worth pausing to consider what the transformation actually means. For this, you can use, for example, the Nessling Foundation’s own definition of the sustainability transformation.

From input and output to outcome and, ultimately, impact

The scale of the transformation can feel overwhelming, so it helps to break both the transformation itself and your role in it into smaller parts. There are tools for breaking down (research) impact, and one useful framework is the so-called IOOI model. The name comes from the English words input, output, outcome and impact. In Finnish, these could be translated roughly as panos, tuotos/tulos, vaikutus and vaikuttavuus. The model was originally developed by the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Although the model was not specifically designed as a tool for an individual researcher, I believe it adapts well for this purpose. For a single researcher, the strength of the model lies in the way it helps divide an abstract concept – the impact chain – into smaller, more tangible and even measurable components. It might look something like this:

• Input: The resources you invest, such as money, time, expertise or networks.
• Output: The direct and measurable results of your activities, such as events, training sessions or publications.
• Outcome: The changes that occur within your target audience – for example, in their knowledge, attitudes, behaviour or practices.
• Impact: Societal impact – the broader, long-term change in wellbeing, the environment or society at large.

To make use of the IOOI model, you always need a theory of change. At the heart of this theory is the model’s final step: the intended impact – the change you aim to bring about through your activities. For a researcher working on sustainability transformation, that change is given: the goal is always to contribute to the sustainability transformation itself.

The abstract framework can then be filled with concrete examples like these:

• Input: The working time of a doctoral researcher.
• Output: Tangible results such as an opinion piece, a seminar presentation, a policy brief or a workshop.
• Outcome: As a result of the above, several things might happen: for instance, research findings are considered in forest certification criteria; a citizens’ initiative gains more signatures; the research or policy recommendations are cited in a parliamentary committee discussion; or the researcher is invited to provide expert testimony.
• Impact: Ultimately, impact might be seen in the improved protection of forest biodiversity or a reduction in the consumption of animal-based products – in other words, the sustainability transformation takes another step forward.

It is worth noting that when people talk about impact, they often actually mean outputs, results or outcomes. And that’s perfectly fine – as long as one recognises the difference. Organising a workshop is not, in itself, impact. But if the workshop leads to new collaborations that, for example, result in more environmentally sound legislation, then the workshop has played a role in the impact chain. In the same way, a research finding alone does not yet constitute impact, but communicating it can set in motion a chain of events that eventually leads to impact.

Do what inspires you

A more practical way to understand your own role and potential ways of creating impact than the IOOI model is simply to ask yourself: What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? What feels natural to me?

If your strength lies in writing, you can focus on blog posts and opinion pieces. If you feel at home on stage, you might focus on giving talks at different events. If the spotlight isn’t for you, you can be the researcher who helps prepare background material for a colleague who has agreed to give media interviews.

Finding your own way is rewarding – it makes the idea of impact a natural part of your work. At the same time, it helps you recognise which skills you might still be missing and what you would like to develop further.

What is your discipline’s way of creating impact?

You can also understand your role in the sustainability transformation through the lens of your own discipline or research topic. Different fields of science have different ways of influencing change.

Is it natural for your field, for example, to produce patents or commercial applications that help companies advance the sustainability transformation? If this is the kind of impact you aim for, it’s useful to identify early on the companies or sectors that could benefit from your results and start engaging in dialogue with them.

Perhaps your research produces new conceptual insights that help move your entire field in the direction of the sustainability transformation. In that case, focus on interaction within the academic community.

Could your findings be developed into a continuing education course for secondary school teachers? Are your results immediately relevant to policymaking? Could your research support civil society or NGOs in driving the transformation forward? The earlier you identify the kind of impact you are aiming for, the better you can plan for it – and contributing to the transformation will naturally become part of your work.

Creating transformation and building impact are long-term endeavours. The effects of your work may not be immediately visible, but every contribution helps pave the way for future transformation. So I will repeat what I said in my earlier blog:

Even a single researcher can achieve a great deal: they can do their best.