Evaluating Research Outcomes
For more than 100 years, the MRC has been transforming medical research and supporting work that has improved human health and changed lives by delivering economic, academic and societal impact. This is in line with our strategic plan, which drives progress in support of our mission to improve human health through world-class research. The benefits of our research have both a national and international impact: picking research that delivers to combat societal health challenges, translating research into tangible benefits, supporting and providing leadership in addressing global health and providing a world-class environment for medical research.
Monitoring, analysis and evaluation are critical components of achieving our mission by helping to reveal the quality of the research we fund and the processes to expand its impact. We are continually working to improve the monitoring of input and output of our research portfolio and the methodology and techniques for assessing research impact. Additionally, we collaborate with other research funding agencies to evolve stronger principles and policies to ensure robust evaluation. These include openness and use of the FAIR principles.
We have a number of available databases recording research activity at an individual, national and global level that offer opportunities for analysis of the research landscape by outcome, by field, and by location. Data from these resources combined with other information form the basis for our evaluation reports.
10 year MRC Translational Research Evaluation Report (PDF, 1.22MB)
This report looks at MRC’s support for translational research and the progress made since the MRC increased its commitment to translation in 2008/9. The evaluation explores what MRC translational research has delivered, the national and international context for translational research, and issues to address in future funding.
UK health research classification system

The HRCS is used to classify biomedical research awards by area of health/disease and the type of research being carried out. The most recent UK report (2018) is the largest ever analysis of the UK health research funding landscape, covering 146 organisations, 22k+ awards and an estimated £4.8bn spend in 2018.
UK and global research funding databases
Gateway to Research: database of UK publicly funded research projects
World RePORT: database of the research projects funded by 12 international funders around the globe
What's it worth
Analysis of the economic benefits of medical research

MRC careers review
Impacts of MRC investment
Previous MRC Economic Impact reports:
Developing science of science policy
Other reports
The MRC, often in collaboration with other funders, has produced evaluation reports on a wide variety of research funding topics.
10 year MRC Translational Research Evaluation
- 10 year MRC Translational Research Evaluation Report (2019) (PDF, 1.22MB)
- Annex A2.1 Evaluation framework (PDF, 574KB)
- Annex A2.2 Methodology (PDF, 554KB)
- Annex A2.3 Literature review (PDF, 1.64MB)
- Annex A2.4 Interview discussion guides (PDF, 787KB)
- Annex A2.5 Bibliometric analysis (PDF, 451KB)
- Annex A2.6 Analysis of stakeholder interviews (PDF, 568KB)
- Annex A2.7 Analysis of spin-out companies (PDF, 494KB)
- Translational Research Evaluation Databook (XLSX, 810KB)
- Outcomes and future approaches for prevention research (PDF, 754KB)
- The impact of UK research in Europe (2017)
- Interdisciplinary research review (2016)
- Mid-term update on progress against MRC Strategic Plan objectives (2012) (PDF, 2.32MB)
- Kings Policy Institute analysis of AMRC output data
- Strategy for UK Regenerative Medicine (2012) (PDF, 1.60MB)
- UK Life Science Strategy 1 year on (2012)
- Stem Cell portfolio analysis (2007) (PDF, 504KB)
- Review of Nutrition and Energy balance (2008) (PDF, 243KB)
- What is the relationship between public and private investment in science and innovation (2015)
The UK Health Research analyses
This report series provides a landscape of UK public/charitable funding over the past ten years using the HRCS: