What is the seminar series for?
The NIHR Economics Group seminar series aims to showcase the breadth and quality of economics research being conducted across NIHR funded work. We hope that this will help to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration across the NIHR Economics Group sub-groups as well as across institutions.
Seminars will be hosted quarterly on Zoom and will follow the format of a 30-40 minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of comment from a discussant and 10-20 minutes of audience Q&A.
Who can present at our seminars?
We are particularly interested in providing early career researchers with the opportunity to showcase their work, but welcome expression of interest from all career stages. Submission of research in progress is welcome and encouraged. All research presented must be NIHR funded.
If you are interested in presenting your work at an upcoming seminar or would like to be considered for a discussant role, please fill out the expression of interest form for speaker here and for discussant here.
Upcoming seminars
Title: Adapting the DHSC Return on Investment Model for an NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: the case of the Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research
Taking place: Tuesday 20th October from 13:00-14:00
Speaker bio: Prof Charitini Stavropoulou [citystgeorges.ac.uk] is Professor of Health Innovation Research at City St George’s University of London and the Director of the Centre for Health and Care Innovation Research (CHIR [blogs.city.ac.uk]). Her research examines how research and innovation are translated into policy and practice, with a particular focus on evaluating the impact and return on investment of publicly funded research. She works closely with UK and international funders to evaluate and inform their research policies.
Synopsis: As public funding for health and medical research comes under increasing pressure, demonstrating its economic and societal value has become more important. Return on investment (ROI) analyses offer funders and policymakers a tangible, quantifiable way to evidence that research spending generates benefits beyond the research output itself, through health gains, commercial activity, and wider economic spillovers.
This analysis estimates the ROI generated by government funding of the NIHR Royal Marsden and Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) over an eight-year period (2017–18 to 2024–25). It adapts the Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) national ROI model for NIHR spend, replacing several standard national-level assumptions with observed, institution-specific financial and income data where available. Components modelled include attracted charity funding, attracted private investment, private returns via observed intellectual property income rather than an assumed rate of return, spillover benefits, and direct health benefits, net of the opportunity cost of private investment.
The model estimates that for every £1 invested there is £14.41 of societal benefit. Results were most sensitive to assumptions about spillover effects. An extension beyond the eight-year period is also considered, to improve long-term comparability with the national framework.
To our knowledge, this is the first time the DHSC's model has been applied in an adapted form to calculate the ROI of a specific research infrastructure unit. It opens the discussion around the application of these models in practice.
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