A survey on monitoring innovation and societal impact of EU-funded biomedical research : synopsis report

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC), in collaboration with the EC Directorate General for Research and Innovation (RTD), initiated an activity to define indicators suitable for retrospectively assessing the impact of European Union (EU) funded research and investigate how the selection of the methodological approach can affect translatability of research. To this aim, the JRC conducted a survey addressed to current and former participants of EC-funded research projects, mainly in the fields of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, breast cancer and prostate cancer. A first Factual Summary report was initially published in 2020 to yield a brief factual overview of all the survey replies. The present Synopsis report provides a more in-depth analysis of survey replies, focussing on specific aspects concerning the type of impact of EU-funded research projects in these biomedical research areas, how the selection of the experimental model(s) underpinned research success, the issues encountered, as well as the most relevant ingredients for success. Efforts made to disseminate project related activities and their research outcomes to the lay public were also considered. Additionally, follow-up interviews with a group of survey participants were conducted and their transcripts analysed; some of the main outcomes of this qualitative analysis have been considered to complement the information provided in this report. This analysis could provide some insights on the factors possibly contributing to research success and the obstacles hampering or preventing translational outputs of funded research. Eventually, they may be taken into consideration to shape future strategic planning and assist in prioritising emerging research topics for future calls for proposals.