NIA has entered into a contract with NAS to organize an expert meeting to critically review the current state of the science on the economic valuation of research to improve health and consider the specific challenges associated with conducting such work for the behavioral and social sciences. With tighter federal budgets, all government funded programs need to develop ways of measuring program impact. For example, in a recent congressional budget justification, NIH cites the work of economists Murphy and Topel in estimating the dollar value of longevity gains as a means of supporting NIH research. NIA seeks to develop methods of connecting spending in research on behavioral and social sciences to health and longevity. These methods could likely provide insights to other NIH programs regarding the development of useful metrics to measure program impact.
