It is often stated that the most difficult task in any research project is not the achievement of results, but the accurate analysis of the benefits that those outcomes reap.

The Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Programme has been a leading light in the discovery and industry-focused application of new technologies and techniques.  Now, with the release of a landmark guidebook by the CRC Association, scientists are armed with tools to greatly improve their ability to accurately assess the benefit to the economy of their outputs.

The CEO of the CRC Association, Mr. Michael Hartmann said "We commissioned the report for the use of our member CRCs.  It soon became clear however that the application of these concepts were not limited to CRCs but to the entire scientific community.  For that reason we are making the report publicly available through free download from our website."

The CRC Association has also launched the report by officially presenting it to the Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon. Julie Bishop MP and the Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr.

Mr Hartmann continued "This is a landmark report and provides a clear direction into how the impact of research may be assessed in economic terms.  The robust approach means that the results are believable and not over-emphasised.

"We have chosen to make this guidebook freely available as we believe it will prove to be of great assistance to all researchers, and in particularly the Universities as they develop systems to measure their research impact in the Research Quality Framework".

The guidebook, entitled "Impact Monitoring and Evaluation Framework : Background and Assessment Approaches" was commissioned by the CRC Association and produced by Deloittes - Insight Economics.

The guidebook details the difficulties in assessing the economic impact of scientific endeavors, yet shows that the task is not impossible if the approach is considered at the commencement of the research project.  The concepts are contextualised using CRCs as examples, and templates provided to assist researches plan and complete their impact assessments.

The guidebook is available for download from the CRC Association website