The seminar will present the very first steps of an INGENIO initiative to develop an approach to evaluate investments in “Translational Research”. Unlike most evaluation studies, this work is not related to any specific evaluation assignment; instead, it seeks to develop a framework that we can later use to strengthen INGENIO’s evaluation offer in the biomedical field. “Translational Research” is a generic term commonly applied to projects that attempt to bridge the “gaps” that hamper the conversion of relevant scientific discoveries and  the results of clinical findings into applications with a health benefit. The interest in “Translational Research” has mainly been driven by the perception that many promising results from basic science in biomedicine have not been systematically translated into medical treatments and, ultimately, health care improvements. The evaluation of “Translational Research” initiatives has typically identified “gaps” in a “translational continuum”, assessing whether and how the initiatives under study have helped bridge these gaps. The seminar will present a summary view of these, rather linear, approaches to evaluation and propose an alternative evaluation framework based on the notions of proximity developed by Boschma and colleagues.

Co-authors: Oscar Llopis, Ismael Rafols, Pablo d’Este.