Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A funder commissions independent contribution-analysis evaluation of a 5-year research programme.
- Is an instance
An institution conducts portfolio-level impact evaluation by aggregating case studies across departments.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Reporting impact-evaluation findings based on author self-report with no triangulation.
- Not an instance
Claiming attribution without identifying counterfactual evidence or contribution pathway.
Editorial commentary
Impact evaluation asks a broader and later question than most other project-end assessments: not “did the project deliver what it said it would,” but “what effect did this work actually have,” including effects the original project plan never anticipated. It is a distinct evaluative discipline with its own methods, not simply a more thorough version of a progress check.
Timing: after, not at, project end
An end-of-project review happens at or shortly after completion and measures delivery against the original plan. Impact evaluation is typically conducted later — often months or years after project completion — because meaningful downstream effects (policy uptake, changed clinical practice, a technology reaching market, a shift in a field’s research direction) usually take time to materialize and cannot be reliably assessed the moment funding ends.
Common methods
Because attributing a real-world effect to a specific piece of research is methodologically hard, impact evaluation relies on more rigorous designs than a self-reported outcomes list: counterfactual or comparison-group designs (what would have happened without this research), contribution analysis (building a credible case for the research’s role among several contributing factors, without claiming sole causation), and theory-based evaluation, which tests whether the causal chain set out in a project’s original theory of change actually played out as expected.
Who conducts it, and at what scale
Impact evaluation is commonly conducted by a funder’s own evaluation unit or by independent evaluators, rather than by the project team producing its own review meeting. It is also frequently conducted at a portfolio level — assessing the aggregate effect of a funding programme across many awards — rather than project by project, which is one further way it differs from a single award’s end-of-project or interim review.
What weak impact evaluation looks like
Findings built solely on author self-report, with no independent triangulation, or a claim of attribution with no identified counterfactual or contribution pathway, do not meet the bar this discipline sets for itself — both are common failure modes flagged in research-evaluation methodology.
Also known as
Research impact evaluation · Impact assessment
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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