After a very enjoyable pre-conference on social media election campaigns, it’s now time for the main event to start: Sonia Livingstone’s keynote will open the ECREA 2022 conference, the first in-person ECREA conference since 2018, and the first in a Nordic country. Sonia’s focus, and indeed that of the conference overall (the overall theme is “Rethinking Impact”), is on the pathways to impact for scholarly research, with particular focus on scholarly engagement with the United Nations.

The UN buildings in Geneva are impressive, intimidating, and often empty. Entering the UN compound remains unusual for researchers; yet the UN Committee …