An important skill for an academic is to be able to formulate the importance of their research in a concise manner. Academics are forced to reflect upon the usefulness of their research. And that is a good thing. After all, they are often paid from public funds. Or they compete for the few grants that are available. They remain out of reach as long as the relevance of their work is not made clear. There are two types of relevance: academic and societal.

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The academic relevance of research concerns its contribution to academic knowledge as a whole, i.e. knowledge gained through academic research. As a researcher, you first need to indicate what knowledge is already available about your research topic. You can then point to the gaps in that knowledge that you intend to fill with your research. But you can only do that if you know what knowledge has already been gained. Therefore, it is essential that you do some preliminary research. Without reading up on the topic, you will not be able to formulate a central question and you will not be able to specify the added value of your research. Addressing the academic relevance is, on the one hand, a responsibility to the outside world, but on the other hand, also a way for you to check whether the research you are doing is unique. [/collapse]

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Societal relevance refers to the usefulness of research for groups in society. This can be expats, families with children of school age or students looking for a room. In social geography and spatial planning, a practical problem is often at the heart of the research. For example, traffic congestion, concentrations of disadvantaged people in a city or the search for a suitable location for a wind farm. The social relevance of this type of research is often clearer than, for example, theoretical research into the big bang. Nevertheless, it is essential that you spell out the social relevance of your research for your audience. Use different arguments and reinforce them by coming up with examples or figures (from a report from the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau [SCP]) or Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek [CBS], for example).Sometimes a newspaper headline can be useful. Research is often both academically and socially relevant. However, it can also be the case that the emphasis is on one or the other. [/collapse]