REPORTPublished by: Transforming Evidence and Sealey Associates
New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe (NORFACE) is a partnership of national research funding agencies in Europe dedicated to leading and developing opportunities for scientists in the area of social and behavioural sciences.
Transforming Evidence and Sealey Associates were commissioned by the ESRC to look at the impacts created from the NORFACE portfolio in the years 2017 to 2023, and the research contributions the NORFACE projects/programmes have made to their respective fields. The evaluation also looks at how the NORFACE programme compares to other ESRC funding instruments such as the TransAtlantic Platform and the Open Research Area.
Methods
For the NORFACE evaluation, 40 projects from six NORFACE programmes were sampled. The approach was informed by an earlier systematic review conducted by Transforming Evidence (2022) which looked at the most appropriate frameworks, data and methods used by funders to assess impact methodically. To gain additional rich insights and stress-test our conclusions from the desk review, we also conducted interviews with relevant stakeholders including ESRC programme staff, NORFACE grantees and a NORFACE programme coordinator.
What did we find?
This work showed that NORFACE delivered a broad spectrum of policy and practice impacts and the majority of researchers were positive about the coordination activities.
There was a very high publication productivity rate, and projects using co-production approaches and that drew upon longstanding partnerships with non-academics tended to be more successful.
Most programme interviewees reported that knowledge exchange activities and their impacts were primarily delivered within the national setting of the individual researchers. There was evidence that networks were extended beyond pre-existing relationships. Nearly all researchers reported that their research partnerships had continued following the formal end of the NORFACE funding period. NORFACE has encouraged some researchers to work with academics in countries in which they have not worked previously, often forming new relationships with countries with less developed research systems.
The emphasis on capacity-building within NORFACE has led to extremely positive outcomes and impacts in terms of early career development for newer researchers.
The full findings of the evaluation can be seen in the report by Rachel Abudu, Prof Kathryn Oliver and Dr Bridget Sealey, NORFACE evaluation for the Economic and Social Research Council.