Making an impact - The economic and social benefits of HRB-funded research

This report, prepared for the Health Research Board (HRB), examines the wider impacts of eight HRB-funded grants from the early and mid-1990s. These impacts are identified using a case study approach, built on the payback framework for research evaluation. The report then considers the economic repercussions of these wider impacts. The report does not, however, estimate the total monetary value of the economic benefit of HRB-funded research.

The report presents the historical context of health research funding in Ireland, which has undergone major changes in last 20 years. It then goes on to identify the economic impacts arising from the case studies, provides summaries for all eight case studies and places the findings in the rapidly developing context of Irish health research. Finally, it presents a way for the HRB to take this methodology forward and implement it in its own evaluation programme.

The research was led by RAND Europe in collaboration with the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) at Brunel University and the HRB. RAND Europe is an independent not-forprofit think tank and research organization that serves the public interest by providing evidence for policy-making and public debate. This report has been peer-reviewed in accordance with RAND’s quality assurance standards (see www.rand.org/about/standards/).