The societal impacts resulting from investment in R&I can take a significant amount of time to emerge. For example, estimates in the field of medical research put the delay from research publication to uptake in healthcare practice at around 17 years. We also know that societal impacts – such as health benefits, for example – often result from a range of factors which may include the role of R&I but also wider social, cultural and economic factors. In addition, typically any change in health practice or health behaviours will result from multiple pieces of research and hence determining whether improvements can be directly ‘attributed’ to one research study, or a specific portfolio of R&I is very challenging.
One way of addressing these challenges is to map out the pathways through which the impacts are achieved – typically using a logic model approach. A logic model is a way of articulating a causal pathway by which an organisation achieves its aims, and allows the pathways to impact to be set out, to understand the different steps required along the way (even where direct ‘attribution’ of impact is challenging. It also enables the analysis of intermediate steps towards the intended impacts, to allow monitoring of whether investments in R&I are delivering the outputs and early outcomes needed to reach the intended impacts. The advantage of a logic model approach is that as well as looking at the ultimate impacts of R&I – which may take years or even decades to emerge – we can also look at the intermediate steps towards these goals to monitor progress towards those ultimate impacts. In this way, we can identify metrics at the output and outcome level as well as the final impact level to enable more ‘real time’ monitoring on the progress of biomedical and health R&I.
Based on consultation with the sector and through detailed case studies, we have developed a logic model which provides an illustration of the pathways to impact in EU funded biomedical and health R&I. This is a generalised model which is intended to capture the range and diversity of routes to impact depending on aims, context and type of R&I activities. Not all R&I awards will address every aspect of this pathway; however, all awards should see aspects of their work reflected in this pathway. The impacts are structured around the definition and typology of impacts developed. Based on the logic model, we have identified key indicators relevant to the societal impact of EU-funded biomedical R&I which span both the impact and outcome aspects of the logic model, based on the availability of data. However, there are some gaps in the availability of data which have restricted the scope of the evidence provided in the dashboard. Over time, as data availability improves, this dashboard can be enhanced to add further measures covering other aspects of this model. We also note that the focus here is on measuring impacts, so the indicators selected are focused to the right hand side of the logic model, though we also include some key research system indicators as well to set the evidence in context. Other resources are available providing more information on research inputs, activities and outputs. We also note the challenges of attribution and linking the outcomes and impacts to the earlier steps in the logic model. As such we would always recommend a mixed methods approach to considering the societal impact of R&I, combining data sources such as the indicators presented on this dashboard with qualitative evidence. The case studies presented here provide useful illustrative examples of such qualitative evidence.
