On 14 April 2026, the WaterSmartLand project was represented at the University of Latvia’s 84th International Scientific Conference, where a keynote presentation by Evelyn Uuemaa was delivered on the topic “From excellence to impact: designing research that matters?
The keynote drew on experiences from the ERC Consolidator Grant WaterSmartLand and the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Land Use, focusing on how research impact is shaped already at the stage of defining research questions. The presentation emphasised that impact is not an add-on at the end of a project, but an integral part of research design that influences who the results may matter to.
In addition, the conference included a panel discussion on how impactful research is understood across science, policy, and society. The panel brought together perspectives from academia and policy, with contributions from Lana Frančeska Dreimane (Ministry of Education and Science) and Andris Ambainis (University of Latvia), and was moderated by Guntars Kitenbergs.
The discussion highlighted the different interpretations of “impact” across sectors and the importance of dialogue in bridging these perspectives.
