Quantification of Research Benefits

More than ever, transportation agencies feel pressure to justify the economic effectiveness of their research programs and expenditures. With limited research funds, research engineers and other research staff must assess and evaluate the effectiveness of research projects’ contributions to the agency and other stakeholders. Quantifying research benefits allows agencies to understand and improve the effectiveness of their research.

This project adapted the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) Excel-based benefit estimation tool to develop an updated and enhanced tool for the New England Transportation Consortium (NETC) and its member States. The updated tool was applied to two NETC projects selected by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for the purpose of both demonstration and refinement of the tool. This video walks users through the tool and explains the different sections.