Impact Centre

The Impact Centre draws on diverse perspectives, skills and partnerships to generate, measure and communicate impactful research on critical challenges facing South Africa and the world.

In fulfilling the HSRC’s public good mandate, the Impact Centre will conduct rigorous, creative and relevant impact research for the public good; conduct large-scale quantitative and representative surveys that are the basis for complex data analytics, modelling and simulations and leverage a wide range of expertise, convene multi-stakeholder forums, promote and produce evidence-informed understanding on impact.

Two additional components of our work are that we are (a) network orchestrators for increased social/policy influence; and (b) our research and knowledge brokering activities are focused at enhancing the quality, capability, accountability, impact and relevance of our institutions.

The programme’s activities are targeted at the interfaces between scientific knowledge, indigenous knowledge, scholarship, translation and interpretation, economic and social policy, and impact assessment. This entails working with various categories of state and non-state actors to (i) develop the understanding of scientific evidence; (ii) stimulate public debate and engagement through communicating and disseminating fact-based findings to stakeholders and publics, (iii) conduct imaginative, timely and impactful projects; (iv) improve access, use and uptake of its knowledge; and (v) catalyse policy learning, innovation, and action.

The Impact Centre will address these charges by weaving together four interconnected strands of work:

  1. Science in Society,
  2. Impact Assessment,
  3. Communications, and
  4. Strategic Partnerships.