Performance measurement strategy
CIHR’s Ethics Action Plan is intended to be ‘transformational’ in nature and move beyond traditional research funding outcomes. This performance measurement strategy presents elements and transformational outcomes that compliment and align with all of CIHR’s programs, as well as CIHR’s organization and culture.
The strategy describes the transformative outcomes set out for Ethics at CIHR and proposes indicators for measuring performance against these outcomes. It is comprised of two elements:
- CIHR Ethics logic model and link to performance measurement
- Transformative outcomes and potential performance measurement indicators
CIHR Ethics logic model and link to performance measurement
Goal: To promote, assist and undertake research that meets the highest international scientific standards of excellence and ethics, foster the discussion of ethical issues and the application of ethical principles to health research, and monitor the discussion of ethical issues.
Activities
Responsibility: CIHR
Performance measurement alignment: Informing decision making, building capacity, advancing knowledge
Culture of ethics stream:
- Provide leadership, advice and guidance in ethics
- Foster and promote strategic partnerships for ethics researchers
- Implement strategies to communicate about ethics priorities and progress
- Develop and promote innovations in ethics education and training
Ethics research stream:
- Measure and monitor activities
- Support funding of ethics research
Outputs
Definition: The direct products or services generated from the activities of an organization, policy, program or initiative.
Responsibility: CIHR
Performance measurement alignment: Informing decision making, building capacity, advancing knowledge
Culture of ethics stream:
- Ethics expertise informs consultations and decision-making
- Inclusion of ethics in CIHR guidance and policies
- Fully integrated ethics education, training and communications
Ethics research stream:
- Funded ethics research
- Ethics expertise in the College of Reviewers
Immediate outcomes
Definition: An outcome that is directly attributable to the outputs delivered.
Responsibility: CIHR, Research community/ethics
Performance measurement alignment: Informing decision making, building capacity, advancing knowledge
Culture of ethics stream:
- Strengthened accountability for ethics within CIHR
- CIHR ethics leadership strengthened at a national level
Ethics research stream:
- Advancement of knowledge from ethics research
- Results from ethics research informs and impacts health and health research
- Increased ethics funding opportunities
Intermediate outcomes
Definition: Outcomes that are logically expected to occur once one or more immediate outcomes have been achieved.
Responsibility: Research community/ethics
Performance measurement alignment: Informing decision making, building capacity, advancing knowledge, broad social and economic impacts, health system impacts, health impacts
Culture of ethics stream:
- CIHR and Canada ethics leadership both nationally and internationally
Ethics research stream:
- Strengthened ethics research community in Canada
- Strengthened and expanded national ethics knowledge base
Ultimate outcomes
Definition: These are the highest-level outcomes that can be reasonably and causally attributed to a policy, program or initiative. These are a consequence of one or more intermediate outcomes having been achieved.
Responsibility: Research community/ethics
Performance measurement alignment: Informing decision making, advancing knowledge, broad social and economic impacts, health system impacts, health impacts
Culture of ethics stream:
- Strengthened culture of research ethics in Canada
Ethics research stream:
- Ethics research that informs decision-making and practices in health and health research
Transformative outcomes and potential performance measurement indicators
Immediate transformative outcomes
Advancing knowledge: CIHR ethics leadership strengthened at a national level
Potential indicators:
- Number of education sessions/webinars/publications
- Number of participants in ethics education events
- Percentage satisfaction rate of participants after education session
- Number of hits on ethics education webpages
- Number of external presentations, meetings (national and international), and public products related to ethics at CIHR
Informing decision-making: Strengthened accountability for ethics within CIHR
Potential indicators:
- Percentage of CIHR governance & advisory committees that include ethics stakeholders
- Number of issues addressed by SCE that become action items for CIHR
- Number of CIHR policies containing an ethics component
- Ratio of internal committees and working groups where ethics is present (such as the Partnerships Risk Working Group) and not present
Intermediate transformative outcomes & potential indicators
Advancing knowledge: Strengthened and expanded national ethics knowledge base
Potential indicators:
- Number of publications in ethics from CIHR-funded researchers
- Citations of findings of ethics research in scientific and non-scientific publications
- Percentage of ethics grants reporting new method, new theory or replication of findings
Building capacity: Strengthened and expanded national ethics knowledge base
Potential indicators:
- Percentage of total CIHR expenditures for ethics research
- Number of ethics researchers funded vs CIHR and by program
- Number of ethics grants and awards in the investigator-initiated research and priority-driven research opportunities
Building capacity: Strengthened ethics research community in Canada
Potential indicators:
- Percentage of ethics applications overall (success rates)
- Number of grants sent to ethics reviewers (workload / burden / capacity)
- Number of ethics reviewers recruited in the College of Reviewers
- Number of ethics reviewers who were deployed to review an application
- Number of applications ethics reviewers have received
- Number of funding opportunities of Institutes and Initiatives for which an ethics perspective was offered at the design stage
- Number of funding opportunities of Institutes and Initiatives for which an ethics perspective was offered and incorporated as appropriate
- Percentage of targeted funding opportunities with an ethics component that lead to ethics researchers being funded as principal investigators or co-investigators
Long term transformative outcomes & potential indicators
Informing decision-making: Ethics research that informs decision-making and practices in health and health research
Potential indicators:
- Co-author analysis for ethics researchers being cited on publications
- Field analysis of citations of ethics research
- Percentage of ethics grants reporting contribution to improved health of Canadians
- Percentage of ethics grants reporting application of findings
- Percentage of ethics grants reporting contribution to more effective health services and products
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