Minnesota state agencies are working together to establish and report outcome-based performance measures that monitor the progress and impact of Clean Water Fund activities. This inter-agency group completed a report in February 2012, Clean Water Fund Performance Report. At the heart of the report is a suite of quantifiable performance measures.

MDA's Clean Water Research Program is reporting on performance measure OPM12: Percent of research projects meeting research efficiency goals.

This performance measure was developed using guidelines from the National Academies of Sciences 2008 report Evaluating Research Efficiency in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the National Academies' framework projects are evaluated according to two main criteria:

1)  Investment efficiency: is the agency making investments in the right projects? 

Investment efficiency is best evaluated by an independent, expert review panel that uses predominantly qualitative metrics to evaluate the program. The charge of the review panel is to determine if the research supported is relevant, of the highest quality, effective and efficient.

• Relevance is a measure of how well research supports the mission or purpose of the Clean Water Fund, which is to protect, enhance and restore lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater and drinking water in Minnesota.
• Quality refers to how research contributes to our understanding and knowledge of water resources in Minnesota. The review panel will evaluate the soundness, accuracy, novelty and reproducibility of the research projects.
• Effectiveness refers to the usability of research results by various stakeholders such as TMDL and other technical field staff, conservation professionals, and policy-makers.
• Efficiency refers to the ability to achieve quality, relevance, and effectiveness while minimizing resources devoted to the project in terms of time and money

The review panel can also identify emerging issues and determine their place in research priorities.

2) Process efficiency: are the research investments being managed well?

Process efficiency uses quantitative measures to track dollars and hours devoted to a project. Process efficiency refers to inputs, outputs, and intermediate outcomes of a research project and overall program.

• Inputs include agency resources such as funding, facilities, and staff that support research.
• Outputs are products delivered by a research project such as conclusions, reports, published papers, monitoring data and new techniques developed.
• Intermediate outcomes provide the review panel tangible metrics of evaluation. Examples of intermediate outcomes may include an improved body of knowledge available for decision-making, and newly developed tools and models.

Tracking Outreach and Education

• Number of outreach activities  (presentations, workshops, field days, and other events)
• Number of educational events (presentations or outreach to K-12 students or teachers, undergraduate science classes, non-science majors, grad students, etc)
• Number of peer-reviewed publications