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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RI Impact Pathways (Charting Impact Pathways of Investment in Research Infrastructures)

Teaser

Summary

The aim of the RI-PATHS project is to develop a comprehensive framework describing the socio-economic impact of research infrastructures (RIs) and their related financial investments. The framework is developed in a modular manner adapting it to a broad range of scientific domains and types of RIs. The project outcomes are expected to contribute to a common approach at the international level and facilitate investments in research infrastructures by funding agencies and other stakeholders. The project activities have taken into account the results from the Working Group of Socio-Economic Impact of Research Infrastructures established by the OECD Global Science Forum and are involving key international players in this domain.

The specific objectives of the RI-PATHS project are:
1) Take stock of the existing approaches for impact assessment of research infrastructures and map the current and future data gathering needs of key stakeholder groups;
2) Employing systems thinking approach develop a modular impact assessment (IA) framework that represents all major impact pathways of RIs;
3) Operationalise the IA framework by defining a set of reference indicators, providing guidance on monitoring and evaluation approaches and testing feasibility with pilot RIs.

Work performed

The three specific RI-PATHS objectives have been addressed in the following ways during the first 18 months of the project implementation:

Objective 1: This objective has been predominantly addressed by Work Package (WP) 3 activities, which have been fully completed within the first reporting period. The stocktaking exercise included a literature review of the current analytical methods used for impact assessment of research infrastructures (T3.2) and the design, implementation and analysis of an online survey of RIs (T3.3) and interviews with policy makers and experts (T3.3). The literature review provided a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing main impact assessment methods, highlighting that no single method in its traditional formulation provides a comprehensive and satisfactory answer for the needs of assessing the socio-economic impact of RIs. It was concluded that RI-PATHS analytical framework should be built on the most promising existing approaches expanding and combining them to enable a fitting analysis of a broader range of impacts. The online survey entailed analysis of 191 replies from RIs and provided evidence on the actual assessment practices and existing data, while a set of 34 semi-structured interviews (by phone or face-to-face) discussed with policy makers and funding agencies their information needs, concerns and research questions. All outcomes of the stocktaking exercise are presented in D3.2 and its annexes.

Objective 2: The proposed impact assessment framework has been developed in a consecutive manner adopting and revising the initial assumptions in the course of the project. As a first step, a working note on RI typology (D3.1) was developed under WP3. This document elaborated consortium thinking about the possible functional taxonomy of RIs that would be pertinent to the assessment of socio-economic impact and hence could form the IA framework modules. The typology has been tested with the RI community including a dedicated question in the online survey. WP4 activities that included two rounds of participatory workshops with RI representatives formed the basis to expand further the design of the IA framework. The design of the first round of workshops (T4.1) took a more exploratory approach sourcing a structured input from the RI community on the most important impact areas and impact pathways to be included in the IA framework. This work led to detailing of relevant impact areas under four broad impact categories: 1) Direct economic impact; 2) Human resource impact; 3) Social/societal impact and 4) Policy impact. Participatory deliberation also helped co-create 12 general impact pathways. D4.1 summarises the outcomes of the first round of workshops. The first interactions with RIs confirmed that most impact areas and many impact pathways are relevant across all types of RIs even if their emphasis differs. For this reason, the second round of workshops (T4.2) was structured around three main themes: 1) Quantifiable impacts that can be captured through available quantitative metrics (e.g. economic analysis) ; 2) Non-quantifiable impacts the assessment of which can, however, be supported by quantitative means (e.g. social network analysis, dedicated surveys); 3) Complex network effects captured through qualitative approaches (e.g. narrative-based case studies) and exploratory methods. These participatory events contributed to the prioritisation of relevant indicators and reviewed the applicability of available analytical methods. The results of the second round of workshops, as well as consortium conclusions for the draft design of the IA framework, are described in D4.2.

Objective 3: In the first reporting period, the third objective is not yet fully addressed. The consortium has worked on the initial set of impact indicators as part of WP4 activities, as well as gathered feedback on the usefulness and applicability of various existing analytical methods for assessi

Final results

There are two overarching impact objectives for the project defined by the European Commission:

1) Develop cooperation with key international partners for research infrastructures
2) Enhance the role of the Union in international organisations and multilateral fora.

In the first 18 months of project implementation, the consortium has achieved the first concrete steps for reaching these impact objectives. The project website has attracted more than 2.6k unique users, of which 26% have been from third countries (most notably, the US and Canada). The external subscribers to the project by the end of the reporting period reached 193, which represents 128% from the original KPI defined for the entire project duration. Moreover, the project Twitter page (https://twitter.com/RI_PATHS) had 265 followers by mid-2019.

The project team has worked closely with the OECD Global Science Forum representatives and the final work of their expert group on Socio-economic impact of RIs has been taken up in further RI-PATHS work. RI-PATHS project and its first results have been presented and discussed at the International Conference on Research Infrastructures that took place on 12-14 September 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

The project team has collaborated with the Advisory Board member Laura Hillier from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) spreading news and project surveys to RIs in Canada and the US. Communication has also been maintained with Tom Keenan from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia updating him on the latest RI-PATHS deliverables. Some initial contact has also been established with Lee EunJu from Korea Basic Science Institute with further interest to convene a more concrete cooperation meeting.