It also contains factual inaccuracies about the methodology employed in our impact assessments, for example it is stated that the impact of exceptional funding cases has not been taken account of in savings calculations, which is incorrect".
This primarily highlighted the types of support needed for policy-makers undertaking health impact assessments, for example the need for more training and increased access to advice.
Traditional methods of environmental impact assessment (EIA), for example, applied at the level of individual projects [ 38], have given way to more inclusive methods of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) at the level of programmes and plans [ 39, 40].
Policy appraisal and health impact assessment, methods, for example, similarly draw on all these disciplines, including in-depth quantitative and qualitative research, and 'tool-kit' – based approaches, though these have come in for criticism as they place too little emphasis on the soundness of the evidence upon which they draw [ 13].
Health impact assessment (HIA) provides an example of the importance of transdisciplinary research when planning and implementing policies and interventions.
The reasoning behind the exclusion of impact in other scientific areas (as for example indicated by the number of citations of the paper in scientific journals) from the societal impact assessment in this model was based on earlier suggestions that scientific citation-based assessments and societal impact assessments should be synergistic and complementary [ 21].
For example, the impact assessment accompanying the European Commission Climate and Energy Package indicated that by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% in 2020, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and PM2.5 emissions would be reduced by 10-15% compared to baseline emissions in 1990, thus reducing health damage costs by between €12-2912-29lion [ 18].
Fig. 1 Tools for sustainability impact assessment, their approach (or "logic") and examples of the indicators or data the tools may directly incorporate in the context forest bioeconomy.
5 6 At the current time there is no agreed systemic approach for measuring the broader impacts of health research, although there are some examples where research impact assessment systems have been introduced by governments and funding bodies, such as the Research Excellence Framework and ResearchFish in the UK.
Although the findings apply only to the United Kingdom, they are winning praise as an example of environmental impact assessment.
