Metrics

Measures of Success

Potential Self-Evaluation Research Activity Metrics for Use by TRB Committees

Metrics can be used to measure a committee’s activities and performance. The CRC Council offers the below list of metrics as just one of many resources the Council is providing committees on this website. However, the Council wants to be clear that in no way is it requiring or even suggesting that committees need to implement performance metrics.

Committees are functioning at different stages in the research cycle. Certainly, committees need to feel comfortable where they are in all steps of the research cycle before they might think they want to start tracking some of their research activities through performance metrics. Some committees may feel they need to focus on developing research needs statements (RNS) or securing funding for their RNS and are not ready to implement performance metrics, and some committees may chose not to implement performance metrics at all. The below metrics are provided for those committees who are ready and would like to use performance metrics.

If a committee chooses to use performance metrics, the metrics should be chosen carefully, using only those few metrics that committee members feel are important to their committee. Finally, the metrics are only for use within each committee. There will be no effort to collect metric information and, certainly, there will be no effort to compare metrics among committees.

Research Ideas and Research Needs Statement (RNS) Development

  • Number of new research ideas considered annually

  • Number of new peer-reviewed RNS entered into the RNS Database annually

  • Number/Percentage of RNS with co-sponsors

  • Number/Percentage of RNS in the RNS Database reviewed and updated annually

Funding

  • Number of RNS submitted to funding programs in the past year

  • Were any of these RNS funded in the past year?

    • Status of funded RNS (if any)

Sharing Research Results

  • What useful/implementable/implemented products resulted from the conduct of research?

  • What activities were used to share the research results?

    • Websites

    • Conferences (TRB Annual Meeting or other)

      • Attendance

    • Meetings

      • Attendance

    • Webinars

      • Attendance (number of sites and number of attendees at each site)

    • Workshops