4 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Your Research ROI

Return on investment (ROI) is a critical metric for clinical research leadership. Determining how your organization is leveraging investments, from both outside sources and from within your institution, is key to securing future funding. Listed here are questions to ask as you evaluate your ROI and demonstrate the true value of your research.

1. How many publications did team members within a specific program produce last year?

Examining your program-wide research output shows how members, colleges and departments are collaborating to make the most of research investments. This data can be extremely useful for progress reports, sharing with your external advisory board, or within the program itself.

2. Who are my top-performing staff?

Identifying those who contribute to key accomplishments, such as high-impact publications or securing significant grant funds, is a great way to measure your research staff’s impact. By determining who appears at the top of the list in multiple categories, you can truly single out and reward your top performers.

3. What highlights or stories did we produce from grants in the past year?

Creating a process to document your successes is invaluable to your organization. Indicating the positive outcomes, such as honors your research organization earned or media coverage, can be a powerful tool to demonstrate your research’s impact on your community and the industry as a whole.

4. What research accomplishments were supported by which cores?

Shared resources within a research institution, or cores, play a big role in the research and may result in a publication. Determining which cores support the most publications can identify the most valuable cores within your organization. This information can be useful when making the case for additional resources.

Answering these questions can provide valuable insight into your organization’s research output. However, calculating these metrics can be a frustrating, time-consuming task for clinical research leadership. Since grants, publications, programs, and other research data are often scattered across the institution, it can take days, weeks, or even months to gather the necessary information. If your organization is struggling to gather this data, a research evaluation and reporting system can help.

Showcase your research ROI to the NCI, NIH, and internal leadership. Learn more about EVAL.

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