Health & wellbeing
Research impacts accumulate through changes in health outcomes, quality of life and the lived experience of people and families.
Case Study | Health Care Research Evaluation
CIHR Health Research Impact
A national evaluation of how health-research investment translates into long-run health, economic, fiscal and wellbeing outcomes for Canadians.
At a Glance
Client
CIHR
(Canadian Institutes of Health Research)
(Canadian Institutes of Health Research)
Year
2026
Services
Social value assessment; counterfactual impact modelling
Sector
Health Care Research Evaluation
The Challenge
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research stewards about $1.5 billion a year in public health-research funding. It is accountable for that funding, yet the most important effects of research emerge through long lags, partial attribution, and spillovers across health systems, households, and the economy. They needed to measure that value credibly. Existing frameworks name the problem but are hard to apply at the scale of a whole research funder.
The Approach
SVT modelled the expected value of CIHR-funded research over 2025 to 2044, person by person, in one connected system spanning health, the economy, public finance, and social value. It compared a future where CIHR funding continues with what would likely have happened anyway if it did not. Health gains were estimated from research-to-impact pathways, with explicit lags and a conservative attribution fraction, and social value was measured as an empirical welfare effect rather than a mechanical health-utility conversion.
What the Analysis Shows
The largest share of expected value comes through health, wellbeing and broader social pathways rather than short-run economic activity alone.
Economy & public finance
The analysis connects health-research outcomes with labour-market, economic and public-finance effects rather than treating them as separate systems.
Long-run pathways
Research effects emerge over time, with explicit lags, attribution assumptions and counterfactual comparison built into the modelling.
The work also shows that benefits are distributed differently across people, families and regions, making a person-level view important for understanding who experiences the consequences of research investment.
Key Takeaway
This engagement demonstrates that the long-run value of public research funding can be measured as social value, person by person - producing a forward-looking, defensible benchmark a funder can use for accountability and for showing Canadians what health research returns.
Related
Who We Help: Government & Policy
How SVT evaluates government programmes and public investments.
Learn more →Who We Help: Non-Profits & Community
How SVT helps non-profits prove impact with credible evidence.
Learn more →Our Methodology
How we measure social value person by person.
Read methodology →Facing a Similar Challenge?
Start a conversation. We will tell you what evidence is possible.
Start a ConversationExternally reviewed methodology, developed over 20+ years400+ engagements (CANCEA, 2002-2026)Featured in the ICPM Social Infrastructure Blueprint (2026)