MRC Review of the MRC-DFID Concordat
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20 July 2018 Review of the MRC-DFID Concordat Final report www.technopolis-group.com Review of the MRC-DFID Concordat technopolis |group| and RAND Europe July 2018 Zsuzsa Jávorka, Peter Varnai, Martin Wain, Francie Sadeski and Anoushka Dave, Technopolis Group Susan Guthrie, Ioana Ghiga, Daniela Rodriguez Rincon, Sarah Parks and Richard Flint, RAND Europe Case study writers: Matthias Ploeg, Anneloes de Ruiter and Theresa Madubuko, Technopolis Group; Elta Smith, RAND Europe Quality assurance: Catriona Manville, RAND Europe Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................1 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Objectives of the review ............................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Scale and scope of the review .................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Overview of our methodology ................................................................................................................... 5 1.3.1 Desk-based research ......................................................................................................................... 6 1.3.2 Structured interview programme ...................................................................................................... 7 1.3.3 Field visits and impact case studies .................................................................................................. 8 2 The MRC-DFID Concordat ............................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Overview of the Concordat and its development over time ....................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Overview of the past Concordat funding (2003-2013) ...................................................................... 9 2.1.2 Theory of change of the MRC-DFID Concordat ................................................................................ 9 2.2 Activities funded under the Concordat.................................................................................................... 10 3 Findings of the review ...................................................................................................................... 15 3.1 Part A – MRC-DFID Concordat performance and value for money ......................................................... 15 3.1.1 Awareness of the Concordat ............................................................................................................. 15 3.1.2 Relevance of the Concordat ..............................................................................................................16 3.1.3 Quality of activities supported of the Concordat/funded research ...................................................19 3.1.4 International reputation of the Concordat/funded research ........................................................... 20 3.1.5 The management of the Concordat and value for money ................................................................ 22 3.1.6 Value for money .............................................................................................................................. 24 3.1.7 The Concordat in the Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding landscape ......................... 25 3.2 Part B – Research outcomes and impact .................................................................................................. 31 3.2.1 What is the nature, range and timeliness of the outcomes and impacts resulting from the Concordat 31 3.2.2 What does the research to impact process look like for the Concordat portfolio? ........................... 43 4 Conclusions and recommendations, future considerations ............................................................ 57 4.1 Part A: MRC-DFID Concordat performance and value for money .......................................................... 57 4.2 Part B: Research outcomes and impacts ................................................................................................. 60 4.3 Recommendations for the future development of the Concordat ........................................................... 64 Schemes and initiative in the Concordat portfolio ............................................................. 65 4.3.1 MRC Research Boards .................................................................................................................... 66 4.3.2 Unit Programmes (Intramural)....................................................................................................... 68 4.3.3 African Research Leader (ARL) scheme ........................................................................................... 71 4.3.4 European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) ........................................ 72 4.3.5 Implementation research to improve adolescent health in low and middle-income countries (ADH) 72 4.3.6 Developmental Pathway Funding scheme / Developmental Clinical Studies (DPFS/DCS) ............ 73 4.3.7 Experimental Medicine (EM) .......................................................................................................... 74 4.3.8 Fellowship schemes ........................................................................................................................ 74 4.3.9 Methodology Research Programme (MRP) .................................................................................... 75 4.3.10 Public Health Intervention Development scheme (PHIND) ........................................................... 75 Methodological annex......................................................................................................... 76 Case studies ...................................................................................................................... 102 Figures Figure 1 Methodological tools and the main evaluation questions ............................................................................ 6 Figure 2 Breakdown of interviews conducted by group ............................................................................................ 7 Figure 3 Concordat funding over time ...................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 4 Theory of change of the Concordat ........................................................................................................... 10 Figure 5 Number of grants per funding type in the Concordat portfolio .................................................................. 11 Figure 6 Number of open and closed (counted as cumulative figure) research grants in the Concordat portfolio since 2006 ................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Figure 7 Average size and duration of funding awards by award type in the Concordat (2008-2017). ....................12 Figure 8 Number of open research grants by year in Uganda and the Gambia since 2006......................................12 Figure 9 The majority of research awards are in Eastern and Western Africa (number of research awards by region) ...................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 10 Location of the UK institutions in the Concordat funded research projects .............................................14 Figure 11 Country affiliation of the co-investigators of the 2013-17 project portfolio (total number of co- investigators: 108) ...................................................................................................................................................14 Figure 12 Main output indicators for MRC-DFID Concordat 2014-2017 ................................................................ 23 Figure 13 Comparison between MRC-DFID Concordat and RCN GLOBVAC indicators ........................................ 29 Figure 14 Percentage of research grants with at least one output (by output area in Researchfish) ....................... 33 Figure 15 Concordat and GLOBVAC performance .................................................................................................. 33 Figure 16 Outputs reported in the policy category .................................................................................................. 34 Figure 17 Policy outputs – geographical coverage ................................................................................................... 35 Figure 18 Reported outputs on health benefits ....................................................................................................... 36 Figure 19 Performance of the MRC Units in Africa ................................................................................................. 38 Figure 20 Range of impact identified in the case studies ........................................................................................ 40 Figure 21 Mean time to first output across different output areas .......................................................................... 42 Figure 22 Number