CSIL has concluded the 30-month long Horizon 2020 project RI-PATHS: Research Infrastructure ImPact Assessment PaTHwayS. The RI-PATHS project aimed to develop a comprehensive framework describing the socioeconomic impact of Research Infrastructures and their related financial investments. The framework was developed in a modular manner, adapting it to a broad range of scientific domains and types of Research Infrastructures.
Among other activities, CSIL’s role included a comprehensive stocktaking exercise and mapping of data gathering needs of the key stakeholder groups, including a survey of RI managers and funders and interviews with policymakers, funding agencies and independent experts. CSIL’s team has also piloted the IA model with the ALBA synchrotron, in Barcelona. We assessed innovation pathways arising from experiments carried out at ALBA through a bibliometric analysis of publications and patents documents.
The final results of the project are available online and include a Research Infrastructures’ Impact Assessment Toolkit site. The Toolkit features descriptions of the identified impact pathways leading to key socioeconomic impacts. It also provides guidance on the most common impact areas and presents examples of suitable monitoring and reporting tools, as well as methodologies for impact measurement. There is an option to browse, search and retrieve all frequently used indicators per main impact areas and types of indicators. A Guidebook is available to accompany the Toolkit users. It gives a glimpse into the topic of impact assessment, presents useful examples and helps RI managers, policymakers and funders make important strategic choices.