On Friday 8 April , within the framework of the closure of the Sustainability and BIC Companies, the presentation of the main learnings and reflections from the project IMPALA were presented at the University of La Sabana.
The session was led by Juan Carlos Camelo, General Director of Social Projection and Co-creation, who has actively participated in the project IMPALA. The University’s Rector, Dr. Rolando Roncancio Rachid, and several deans, directors of administrative units, professors and managers of third mission’s activities attended too.
During the event, Juan Carlos Camelo and Carolina Velásquez, coordinator of the project IMPALA at the university, shared the main progress that has been made during these last three years. Besides, reflections on the importance of university’s third mission’s projects’ impact assessment were exchanged.
The importance of differentiating between product – effect – and impact- was presented as one of the main learnings when it comes to creating evaluation and monitoring indicators and tools. Another highlight was that the use of impact assessment methodologies promotes working by projects in interdisciplinary teams. In the transformation process towards a third generation University (U3G), it is important to bear in mind that the impact assessment framework must start in the third mission, while it is organically integrated in the other two University’s missions: teaching and research. This is particularly relevant taking into account the new national accreditation model.
Finally, the attendees declared that this type of international cooperation projects are of great importance for the strengthening of institutional capacities. They also highlighted the great opportunities to learn and exchange good practices within the consortium that have been created.
