Considerations in valuing road agency-funded road infrastructure research in Australia

Australian Road agencies invest millions of dollars every year in research into road infrastructure. This study examines existing means of valuing research in the public and private sector and compares those with the views of road agency executives in Australia. The study determines that road agency executives value research which delivers outcomes, not outputs, which can be used to support their decision-making. Research is not judged by its impacts as any impact on road agency operations has many causative factors of which the research is just one. Research which produces outputs only, without proceeding to an outcome such as a contribution to a guide, manual, standard or policy is not valued as highly. In agency eyes, success factors for research include experience of the research privder, the scientific standards to which the research is done, the correctness or relevance of the research question, and the approriateness of resource allocation across various research types within the applied research spectrum.