Evaluation in R&D management and knowledge use: a knowledge value mapping approach to currency accessible to the visually impaired

Abstract

The dynamics of knowledge flow between R&D activities and a diverse set of actual or potential users is clearly critical to the realization of desired outcomes. However, current R&D evaluation frameworks focus almost exclusively on measurable discrete outputs and outcomes. We show that more general categories of the realization of values from the creation and utilization of knowledge are needed to make R&D evaluation more relevant to R&D program management. We propose a set of procedures that comprise a knowledge value mapping approach to R&D evaluation. This is achieved by considering the explicit and implicit normative dimension of the evaluation situation as an empirical domain that requires its own analytical elucidation to direct and give meaning to other technical aspects of the evaluation agenda. The benefits for research portfolio management are explored based on the experience of deployment of a specific technology in the context of rehabilitation research in the USA, namely, accessible currency.