Impact Evaluation: How to Measure What Really Works in Science and Tech
When you launch a new health program, roll out solar panels in a village, or test a new AI tool, you need to know if it actually worked. That’s where impact evaluation, the systematic process of measuring real-world results from interventions. Also known as program evaluation, it’s not about counting how many people were reached—it’s about asking: Did lives improve? Did costs drop? Did behavior change? Too many projects skip this step and call themselves successes just because they were built. Real impact means proof.
Impact evaluation doesn’t need fancy math. It’s about comparing what happened before and after, or between groups that got the intervention and those that didn’t. In public health, it’s how we know polio vaccines stopped outbreaks. In clean energy, it’s how we prove solar microgrids actually reduced kerosene use. And in tech transfer, it’s how a lab discovery becomes a product that farmers actually use. The public health outcomes, measurable changes in community health like lower disease rates or higher vaccination coverage are the clearest signals. But the same logic applies to technology transfer, the process of turning research into real-world tools—if no one uses it, the science didn’t win.
What you measure depends on what you’re trying to fix. For a diabetes prevention program, it’s blood sugar levels and weight loss. For a new AI tool in a hospital, it’s how fast doctors make decisions. For a renewable energy project, it’s kilowatt-hours generated and how many households stayed off the grid. The posts below show these real cases: how a smoke-free law cut lung disease, how a transfer agent tracked a biotech patent from lab to market, how data scientists proved a vaccination campaign saved lives. You won’t find fluff here—just hard questions asked and answered with data.
Impact evaluation is what separates noise from progress. It’s the reason some programs scale and others vanish. If you’re designing a project, funding one, or just curious about what actually works in Indian science and tech—this collection gives you the tools to see beyond the headlines and into the results.
