Adelaida Sarukhan is from Mexico, where she studied biology. However, work and life have taken her around the world. First, she did a PhD in immunology at the Necker Hospital in Paris, where she spent 13 years doing research. She then returned to Mexico and later lived in Milan and Brussels, always working on her research.
In 2012, in the midst of the financial crisis, she landed in Barcelona and decided to change her career. She had always liked writing and narrating science, so she studied the Master in Scientific, Medical and Environmental Communication of the Barcelona School of Management (UPF) and, at the same time, she took a MOOC course on global health at the University of Geneva. She had the opportunity to combine the knowledge of both at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) where she joined to do her Master’s internship and where she is still working.
Since 2014, she has been in what is now called the Translation and Societal Impact department – and was previously the Global Analysis and Development department. Linked to communication and narratives, she has worked as a ‘Google translator’, as she says; that is, adapting scientific language to different audiences. Now, she coordinates the impact unit within the department. On the occasion of the PRBB Career Month, and with the aim of giving visibility to different profiles in science, we talked to Adelaida to learn about what her work consists of.
First things first – what is Impact?
Impact is the changes that result from research, beyond the academic world. It is how these changes affect society. It has several dimensions. For example, one can be the scope, whether it affects a specific population or the whole world. But they are not always tangible changes. They can be changes in perceptions, in ways of doing something, in the policies that are put in place… And, beware! the impact can be negative.
Lately, there has been a demand to talk more about the impact of funded projects, but it is a complicated concept that many people find difficult to understand. Especially young people, who write European projects, see the relevant section and get stuck, especially with indicators. Impact is increasingly told in narratives that combine quantitative indicators, such as the incidence rate of a certain disease, with qualitative ones, for example, that children have changed their understanding of something. The important thing is to be realistic with impact stories and not to chase unicorns.
There is a mix of quantitative and qualitative indicators in these narratives which is important.
Nor should you set up indicators and measure everything in a crazy way. You have to be careful about what you measure and how you measure it. There is basic research that does not have a direct and immediate impact on society and that doesn’t mean that it is undervalued. Such research is very necessary as long as it is of high quality.
What is the ISGlobal impact unit like?
The impact unit was created because CERCA and other evaluating and funding agencies are asking for more and more impact issues. It is a very new unit and right now we are only two people. I work as the coordinator of the unit and Nabila Mella is the Impact Officer. We work with one foot in the research department and the other in the translation department, as impact is generated by the sum of both.
What does your work involve?
We do a lot of work coordinating the teams working in translation to maximise the impact of ISGlobal’s science. This is not to say that ISGlobal did not have an impact before the unit was created. It always has, and there have always been teams dedicated to translating knowledge to different audiences. For example, outreach, policy and advocacy, communication, initiatives… In the end, our goal is to systematise ISGlobal’s impact, fostering transversality and dialogue between the different teams.
At ISGlobal we have a great advantage because we were born with the idea of “research for the benefit of society” in our DNA.
Part of our work is to help research teams plan their projects with impact in mind. In applications for funding programmes, there is an impact section that is as important as the scientific section, and we support them there. We also help to make the impact of completed or ongoing projects visible. There are groups that perhaps have not been able to identify or demonstrate it. In the end, we provide the tools to help identify and accelerate potential impacts, even in basic research.
So, what is your role in applying for or doing European projects?
From the impact unit, we provide support in writing the impact section of the proposals. And from the translation department, we can lead or implement communication and dissemination activities of the projects. At the advocacy level, the department can act as a bridge to political representatives at national or European level.
What is your day-to-day life like?
A bit eclectic. Especially because we are still in the process of identifying completed or ongoing projects with high impact potential to see how we can help them and how we can document the Pathway to Impact, i.e. all the translation and transfer activities that are being carried out.
We are also creating a whole series of resources to support research teams, a kind of impact toolkit. It is on the centre’s intranet, with many other resources, examples of impact… And we have created a series we call Impact Stories, which are success stories with the idea of making the different types of projects and impacts visible. We also do training courses so that we all understand ‘impact’ in the same way.
In the end, let’s say we are laying the groundwork for everything to work in a more coordinated and systemic way. One of the ways is by working with people within each of our research programmes to enhance synergies.
What do you like most about your work?
The variety of topics. We work on topics as diverse as climate and health or the sexual conversion of the malaria parasite – a process essential for the transmission of the disease. This variety means that you don’t get bored. Also, what we do is relevant to society, I feel I am contributing something. And, what has always been fun for me is explaining and communicating science. It’s not just communicating scientific results, but communicating what’s behind it, what the process is, what it involves and what the added value is for society.
What are the main challenges?
One of the biggest challenges is to get everyone on the same page, so that we all work more or less together in a coordinated way. Sometimes there is a leap from theory to practice and you must have a bit of patience for certain processes. And everyone understands things differently and works in their own way. For me, the biggest challenge now is to try to break down these vaults and encourage coordination between the translation and science teams. They are already coordinated, but sometimes a bit more is needed. Another huge challenge is how to measure impact (the famous indicators) and there is no magic recipe for that either.
What is the future of the profession?
It is a very new profession. The career development of people involved in impact is still being defined. And impact is so vast that I think many profiles can end up doing this role.
I believe that there is a lot of future in the profession and that we are “building the plane as we fly it”
As I said, agencies are starting to ask for these impact studies to be done. So, there are a lot of research centres, especially CERCA, that are starting to prioritise this work and are hiring people as Impact Officers. And more and more people are being trained. If you go to the web now, there is an ever increasing number of courses oriented to impact planning, to measuring indicators, etc.
What would you say to someone interested in working in this field?
There are two important prerequisites for working in impact. One is to have a minimum of scientific training to be able to understand the scientific aspects and to be familiar with the academic world. The other is a great capacity for communication, synthesis and analysis. It is also good to have people skills, to know how to listen and tell a story without overselling.
But what I would tell them is to start reading like crazy. There are plenty of resources, there are several books on impact that I think you can learn a lot from. And then, just jump into the pool and don’t be afraid. Also, start building a community, talking to people who are already on this path, because you also learn a lot from them.
