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1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS A survey of agencies and available literature revealed growing interest and activity in the measurement of research program and project performance. While representatives from a majority of states indicated an interest and some degree of activity, few had developed comprehensive approaches, there were few tools available, and there was little similarity in methodologies among states. This project selected a standard set of research performance measures, developed tools to assist users employ them, and integrated both the standard performance measures and the tools into the Research Performance Measurement (RPM) System, the primary product of this project. The RPM System has two components, a web site named RPM-Web and a complementing CD-ROM tool box named RPM-Tools. Thirty performance measures were jointly selected by the research team and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project panel for the research performance measurement system to be developed. These standard performance measures fall into five categories: outcome measurements, output measurements, resource allocation measurements, efficiency measurements, and stakeholder measurements. The outcome measurements focus strongly on common missions of state transportation agencies, i.e., to save lives, to reduce crashes, and to provide transportation services at the least possible cost to taxpayers. The consensus of survey responses shows these three to be the most valued performance measures by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) agency administrators and AASHTO Research Advisory Committee (RAC) members. A recommendation from this project is that state agencies limit formal research performance measurement to relatively few but critical performance areas. The optimal set of performance measures will likely differ with each state agency, but it is recommended that the three outcome performance measures be strongly considered for measurement in every state. The RPM System provides the means for agencies to develop individualized and comprehensive research performance measurement programs. The RPM System also provides the opportunity for the AASHTO to compile and analyze the benefits and efficiencies of the nationwide transportation research program being provided through federal funding authorizations. Interaction with AASHTO RAC members during this project revealed that implementation of the RPM System will likely vary from state to state. It was also clear that one of the major concerns of these program managers was the amount of research staff effort which may be required to implement and sustain a new or more comprehensive research performance measurement program. A recommendation in this regard is that consideration be given to requiring the agencyâs researching organizations to provide benefit estimates as a final deliverable on their projects. The RPM System has been designed so that each state agency has several options for involving researchers in performance measurement. In addition to the possible distribution of the RPM-Tools CD-ROM to contractors for benefit estimation purposes, each state has the option to grant various levels of access to RPM-Web to its contractors.
