EBP was part of a team that developed a process to provide the National Highway Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) with information on how to demonstrate that its products are generating significant impacts and value for its stakeholders at the state, regional, and local levels. 

EBP helped create an evaluation system — comprised of an integrated set of metrics, methods, and tools — and a recommended plan for its implementation. Our firm was responsible for the Foundational Research component of this work, specifically using case studies and surveys to develop the evaluation system based on the reality of the NCHRP research environment. The project grappled with challenges for ex-poste impact evaluation including how to attribute benefits to a project, how long to wait before measuring benefits, and how to prevent biased findings during an evaluation.

A final report as well as guidelines for conducting research impact assessments can be found here.  

The report includes the following chapters:

• Literature Review
• Synthesis of Stakeholder Interviews
• Research Impact Assessment Framework
• Guidelines for Effective NCHRP Impacts Assessment
• Methodological challenges in assessing the impacts of NCHRP Research
• Changes to NCHRP Process to Facilitate RIA
• Conclusions and Recommendations for Evaluating NCHRP Research.