Describing the impact of health research: a Research Impact Framework.

BACKGROUND: Researchers are increasingly required to describe the impact of their work, e.g. in grant proposals, project reports, press releases and research assessment exercises. Specialised impact assessment studies can be difficult to replicate and may require resources and skills not available to individual researchers. Researchers are often hard-pressed to identify and describe research impacts and ad hoc accounts do not facilitate comparison across time or projects. METHODS: The Research Impact Framework was developed by identifying potential areas of health research impact from the research impact assessment literature and based on research assessment criteria, for example, as set out by the UK Research Assessment Exercise panels. A prototype of the framework was used to guide an analysis of the impact of selected research projects at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Additional areas of impact were identified in the process and researchers also provided feedback on which descriptive categories they thought were useful and valid vis-à-vis the nature and impact of their work. RESULTS: We identified four broad areas of impact: I. Research-related impacts; II. Policy impacts; III. Service impacts: health and intersectoral and IV. Societal impacts. Within each of these areas, further descriptive categories were identified. For example, the nature of research impact on policy can be described using the following categorisation, put forward by Weiss: Instrumental use where research findings drive policy-making; Mobilisation of support where research provides support for policy proposals; Conceptual use where research influences the concepts and language of policy deliberations and Redefining/wider influence where research leads to rethinking and changing established practices and beliefs. CONCLUSION: Researchers, while initially sceptical, found that the Research Impact Framework provided prompts and descriptive categories that helped them systematically identify a range of specific and verifiable impacts related to their work (compared to ad hoc approaches they had previously used). The framework could also help researchers think through implementation strategies and identify unintended or harmful effects. The standardised structure of the framework facilitates comparison of research impacts across projects and time, which is useful from analytical, management and assessment perspectives

An impact evaluation framework: Local government community festivals

This article brings together the author's previous research and consultancy along with a review of literature from several disciplines to develop a framework that summarizes the concepts, methods, and processes required to successfully evaluate the impacts of local government community festivals. Events and festivals are a relatively underresearched area but have experienced a growing amount of public sector expenditure. The framework developed and presented here is in response to the need to encourage greater evaluation of this activity and in doing so recognize the complexity of the process. The impacts of many such festivals are diverse (economic, social, environmental), far reaching (local, national, international), and long term. The evaluation of these impacts, therefore, requires an understanding of the concepts involved and the development of a range of tools and methods. The proposed framework is informed by the empirical research, theory, and practice in the areas of information systems, marketing communications, event studies, and public sector evaluation. Bringing together these distinct but related fields of study has enabled the development of a comprehensive and novel approach to event impact evaluation. Copyright © 2009 Cognizant Comm. Corp

A Methodological Approach for Measuring the Impact of HTA

There is a lack of evidence concerning the link between HTA and outcomes in terms of health improvements. This work proposes a framework for assessing the impact of HTA. This impact assessment is a necessary step in then better understanding the value for money of HTA bodies. We emphasis that this is still a work in progress. iDSI has developed a theory of change-based framework in order to evaluate the impact the iDSI has on institutional strengthening – leading to ‘better decisions’ for ‘better health’. This framework recognises that there is a complex translation process between better decisions and better health dependent on many assumptions about local factors and systems, including linkage between decisions and budgets, delivery, implementation, and data accuracy. Work has been undertaken over the last 6 months developing a methodological approach for measuring the impact of health technology assessment (HTA). Two case studies are used to illustrate the approach. At the core of impact assessment is a requirement to link causes and effects, to explain ‘how’ and ‘why’ and to identify – and thus improve or adapt – mechanisms leading to impact. Policy makers also want to know ‘to what extent’ or ‘the magnitude of impact’. The framework developed adopts an economic approach nested in theory of change as a means of both quantifying the magnitude of impact (utilising economic models) as well as explaining why and how impact happens (drawing on theory based approaches) in order to reinforce learning as to how to improve our response and optimise the use of HTA to have the greatest impact in a given context. This should also enable us to capture and explain wider impact – perhaps more intangible aspects which cannot be easily quantified. This may also possibly increase policy-makers’ ‘buy-in’

Decisions on assessing research impact

"This document sets out the UK higher education funding bodies’ decisions on the broad framework for the assessment of impact in the Research Excellence Framework, and the weightings of the three elements: outputs, impact and environment" - front cover

Decisions on assessing research impact

"This document sets out the UK higher education funding bodies’ decisions in relation to the following aspects of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF): the broad framework for assessing the impact of research in the 2014 REF; the weighting of the three elements in the assessment (outputs, impact and environment)." - Page 1

A Conceptual Framework of Reverse Logistics Impact on Firm Performance

This study aims to examine the reverse logistics factors that impact upon firm performance. We review reverse logistics factors under three research streams: (a) resource-based view of the firm, including: Firm strategy, Operations management, and Customer loyalty (b) relational theory, including: Supply chain efficiency, Supply chain collaboration, and institutional theory, including: Government support and Cultural alignment. We measured firm performance with 5 measures: profitability, cost, innovativeness, perceived competitive advantage, and perceived customer satisfaction. We discuss implications for research, policy and practice

Fresh Water and Smarter Growth: Restoring Healthy Land-water Connections

The paper describes water resources in the United States, discusses the principles of the land-water connection, outlines the current regulatory framework, and explains the impact of climate change. It also introduces the concept of low impact development while providing examples, and highlights how funders are having an impact on sustainable water management. With bibliographical references

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Erratum published on 13 March 2020, see Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2270. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205628In this article, the authors propose an impact assessment method for life cycle assessment (LCA) that adheres to established LCA principles for land use-related impact assessment, bridges current research gaps and addresses the requirements of different stakeholders for a methodological framework. The conservation of biodiversity is a priority for humanity, as expressed in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing biodiversity across value chains is a key challenge for enabling sustainable production pathways. Life cycle assessment is a standardised approach to assess and compare environmental impacts of products along their value chains. The impact assessment method presented in this article allows the quantification of the impact of land-using production processes on biodiversity for several broad land use classes. It provides a calculation framework with degrees of customisation (e.g., to take into account regional conservation priorities), but also offers a default valuation of biodiversity based on naturalness. The applicability of the method is demonstrated through an example of a consumer product. The main strength of the approach is that it yields highly aggregated information on the biodiversity impacts of products, enabling biodiversity-conscious decisions about raw materials, production routes and end user products