Building on the knowledge and experience gained during the piloting of the RI-PATHS approach, an ELIXIR-funded Staff Exchange project, and related work done elsewhere in ELIXIR, this project aims to increase capacity in impact evaluation across a set of national ELIXIR Nodes.
With support from the ELIXIR Hub, activities will be undertaken in coordination with relevant work being done as part of the ELIXIR-CONVERGE project, and will include a specialised training event with hands-on learning complemented by knowledge-exchange. The application of the new skills and knowledge will be implemented by the Nodes themselves, focused on their chosen case studies. A case study is an activity or set of activities, carried out or planned by a Node, and whose impact will be evaluated during the project.
Results of the case studies will be disseminated so that lessons-learned and associated good practices benefit more widely across ELIXIR, and beyond. The main intended outcome from this project is an increased capacity at Node level to demonstrate and communicate its public value to funders and other key stakeholders, thereby contributing to long-term sustainability of Node-led activities. In parallel to this, it is anticipated that this project will work to reinforce the ‘community of practice’ that is emerging, across ELIXIR, around impact evaluation. To achieve these objectives, the project features three work packages:
The project is a joint venture participated in by the ELIXIR Hub and fifteen ELIXIR Nodes: ELIXIR Portugal, ELIXIR Norway, ELIXIR Belgium (Kim De Ruyck), ELIXIR Italy, ELIXIR Greece, ELIXIR The Netherlands, ELIXIR Switzerland, ELIXIR UK, ELIXIR France, ELIXIR Czech, ELIXIR Finland, EMBL-EBI, ELIXIR Spain, ELIXIR Israel, and ELIXIR Germany.