20 September 2021

Many researchers and lecturers of our faculty conduct activities that strengthen or showcase the societal impact of their research and/or academic teaching. To show its appreciation for this, the Faculty Board awards the Faculty Impact Prize to a member of staff of the Faculty of Humanities. The winner will take home €1000 gross in prize money. We challenge you to nominate the researcher or lecturer with the most societal impact in 2021, using this link.

Call for nominations
Every member of staff of the Faculty of Humanities can nominate him- of herself or any other member of staff of the faculty for this prize. It is not allowed to nominate students or external PhD candidates. Members of the Faculty Board and members of the assessment committee are excluded from participation.

In the nomination, the following aspects need to be elaborated on:

• The positive impact of the education/research of the nominated person on society
• in 2021
• with specific attention to collaboration with stakeholders and
• involving and reaching out to the general public.

This year the jury will pay extra attention to the strategy behind the impact initiatives of the candidate. In other words: what impact (long term change) does the candidate want to contribute to and how does the developed initiatives contribute to this?

What is impact?
It is up to the applicant to argue why the nominee has contributed to a positive impact on (groups of people from) society over the course of 2021. This can be through different types of activities like (but not exclusively) outreach, policy influencing, knowledge transfer or societal network formation.

For this prize, the Faculty of Humanities uses the definition for impact of the British Research Excellence Framework (REF):

Impact includes, but is not limited to, an effect on, change or benefit to:

• the activity, attitude, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity, performance, policy, practice, process or understanding
• of an audience, beneficiary, community, constituency, organization or individuals
• in any geographic location whether locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally.

Impact includes the reduction or prevention of harm, risk, cost or other negative effects.

What is the procedure? Nominations can be submitted by sending this form to m.c.belderbos@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

The deadline for nominations is Friday the 17th of December 2021. The nominations will be reviewed by an internal committee who will select a winner. The winner will be announced at an event that will be announced at a later date.