The general idea appears to be that research is good by itself, and that more investment in well-prioritized research, with enough research capacity will be enough.

This is basically and extension of the ideology of universal knowledge claims of modern (Western) science, which neglects the translation from generic knowledge to the local situation, in which research actually contributes to action. This is already very problematic in the West, with:

1)       an ever increasing ‘Implementation’, or ‘Know-Do’ Gap,

2)      a flawed framing of these problems and gaps in terms of resistance of the local practitioners (e.g. we have good knowledge, those laggards are not listening)

3)      a neglect of the competences and requirements for useful translation from the generic to the local, and 

4)      a single minded focus on publishing in high impact journals, instead of contributing to action.

Our analyses of research contribution in Ghana, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Guinea Bissau show that the same problem now emerges in LMIC. Moreover, our analyses indicate that the current NHRS approach provides no strategy to deal with this crucial issue (see Guinea Bissau paper, for instance).

A key topic for Forum 2012 is increasing investment in research and innovation for health. To achieve sustainable investment by LMIC, I think it is essential that:

1)      research products actually contribute to better action for health, and

2)      this return on investment becomes visible (and is optimized).  

Attuning research to needs is not enough. If research knowledge does not contribute to action, investments in R&D may be short lived.

With that in mind, I think it would be interesting and useful for participants of Forum 2012 to have a session on the topic of mapping research contributions (also referred to as Impact or Payback). Such a session could be very useful for sharing ideas, linking ongoing initiatives and developing a network of people interested and working on research evaluation.

As one of the inputs, we can share Contribution Mapping, the method we have developed over the past 5 years. Contribution Mapping builds on our experiences in Ghana, Vietnam, Guinea Bissau and the Netherlands, and integrates insights into research utilization with ideas from Outcome Mapping and other approaches such as the Payback framework.