The consortium has identified 3 main phases to guide and illustrate the logical flow of the activities:
- Phase 1 “Build knowledge”: this phase built the theoretical foundation of the MULTI-ACT CRIF. Such Phase was marked by the accomplishment of:
o the Governance Model;
o the Master Scorecard, made of a selected collection of research impact indicators along 5 impact dimensions: efficacy (mission-related dimension), social impact, economic impact, excellence and patient-reported impact;
o the preliminary version of the guidelines for patient engagement (PE).
Along with these, Phase 1 saw the start of WP2, intended to produce the digital Toolbox.
In addition, WP8 (Dissemination and Exploitation) and WP9 (Project Coordination, Management and Quality Assurance) started in this Phase and run throughout the whole duration.
- Phase 2 “Apply knowledge”, during which the CRIF has been tested in a real-life setting. To this purpose a MSRI focused on Multiple Sclerosis has been selected and the CRIF has been used with the aim to validate it and check its usability, utility and easiness to adopt. The core WPs active in this Phase have been:
o WP4, that was dedicated to develop the case study in collaboration with an existing MSRI and refine the framework based upon the feedback of these early adopters;
o WP2, whereas the consortium continued to work on the development of the online MULTI-ACT toolbox;
o WP1, which validated the first version of the PE guidelines in the case study and launched a public consultation which allowed to produce the final version with a large consensus base. In the meantime, the WP1 team kept on working on the integration of the patient reported dimension indicators into the Master Scorecard.
A review of the whole CRIF was done and inputs from the case study were taken into account to improve it.
- Phase 3 “Use knowledge”, dedicated to expand the community of the potential users of the MULTI-ACT CRIF and improve the Toolbox by adding more complex and interactive functionalities. To this purpose:
o WP2 worked on the second and final release of the Toolbox,
o WP6 collaborated closely with WP2 to produce guidelines and manuals,
o WP7 set the basis for CRIF’s adoption in other brain diseases than MS with the engagement of the research clusters involved in the European Brain Research Area project,
o WP1 continued its work on the application of the PE guidelines through a pilot training module in another international MSRI, thus broadening the scope of the community of the MULTI-ACT adopters and paving the way for a series of exploitation routes beyond the end of the project including the establishment of a traiining academy.
Lastly, WP8 continued planning and delivering strategic communication and dissemination action and designing the exploitation plans. Moreover, it dealt with the IPR aspects.
