The BETA-EvaRIO impact evaluation method: towards a bridging approach?

This paper presents a specific approach in the field of evaluating the effects of publicly supported R&D activities: the BETA approach. Initially developed for application to large technology procurement/agency driven public R&D programmes, it has been adapted to a larger range of programmes supporting science and technology. The BETA approach consists of identifying and retrospectively measuring, at the micro-level via direct interviews, the impact of different types of learning processes triggered by participation in R&D. A further adaptation to the specific case of research infrastructures was conducted in the frame of the EvaRIO project. It also dealt with learning processes from an ex post and micro-level perspective, but covered a wider variety of activities and actors over time, leading to a broader view of effects. Based on 30 years of impact evaluation experience, we argue that the revised BETA approach, despite its focus on the economic dimension of impacts, is at the intersection between different strands of evaluation research. The dual nature of the BETA approach is examined along several dimensions including an output versus process perspective, project versus organization scope, qualitative versus quantitative investigation, contribution versus attribution issues, private profitability versus public value perspective, etc. We show that the BETA-EvaRIO method can be used to complement other evaluation methodologies and can be considered as bridging among them, or can be seen as a single, specific approach.