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Assessing the Payback from AHFMR-funded research

- SECTION 1:

INTRODUCTION AND TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE STUDY


Terms of Reference

There were two broad objectives to this phase of model testing:

  • The first was to confirm that an approach developed in the UK for the Department of Health to help them look at the benefits gained from health services research projects could usefully and meaningfully be applied to similar applied research funded through the AHFMR.

  • The second objective, more speculative and challenging, was to see whether the approach, or an adaptation of it, could be applied to funding focused on less applied areas of health research such as basic and clinical science.

The additional factor, and in essence a third test to the model, was that in both instances the approach had to work in the context of where most of the AHFMR's funding is focused. That is primarily to support individuals, or teams, as part of a process of capacity building, rather than simply short-term funding of specific individual projects.

In the light of this testing the agreed remit was to make some initial recommendations as to how most usefully the AHFMR's interest in this broad issue might be pursued and how the techniques and methods might best be applied and developed.

Figure 1: The Buxton/Hanney 'categories of payback'
  • Knowledge

  • Benefits to future research and research use:
    • the better targeting of future research;
    • the development of research skills, personnel and overall research capacity;
    • a critical capability to utilize appropriate existing research including that from overseas;
    • staff development/educational benefits.

  • Political and administrative benefits:
    • improved information bases on which to take political and executive decisions;
    • other political benefits from undertaking research.

  • Health sector benefits:
    • cost reduction in the delivery of existing services;
    • qualitative improvements in the process of service delivery;
    • increased effectiveness of services eg. increased health;
    • equity eg. improved allocation of resources at an area level, better targeting and accessibility;
    • revenues gained from Intellectual Property Rights.

  • Broader economic benefits:
    • wider economic benefits from commercial exploitation of innovations arising from R&D;
    • economic benefits from a healthy workforce and reduction in working days lost.

Figure 2: Buxton/Hanney Payback Model, a model for assessing payback

Model image


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