MULTI-ACT Project concludes with the launch of Digital Toolbox
12 May 2021
The MULTI-ACT Project concludes today with the official launch of the MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox, a web-based tool enabling easy navigation through the MULTI-ACT knowledge base. The toolbox, which is one of the project deliverables, is designed for use by organisations willing to conduct health research with a multi-stakeholder and co-accountable approach.
The MULTI-ACT project, funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme, kicked off in May 2018 with the aim to increase the positive impact on people living with brain disorders. It brought together leading European society and patient organisations, research and higher education institutions, governmental organisations and technological organisations. The project was coordinated by the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Society Foundation (FISM), as a boundary organisation between Science and Society.
Over the course of three years, the project consortium has developed and implemented a Collective Research Impact Framework (CRIF). The CRIF offers a more participatory and realistic evaluation of the health Research and Innovation (R&I) impact of multi-stakeholder initiatives.
The CRIF components, namely the Baseline Analysis, Governance Criteria, Materiality Analysis, Patient Engagement Guidelines, and Master Scorecard are operationalised in the MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox. The toolbox is user-friendly and contains explanations and recommendations at each stage. Its end goal is to facilitate the application of the CRIF and stakeholder engagement.
The MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox was first presented to the MULTI-ACT project participants during an online demo session organised by the European Health Management Association (EHMA) in March 2021. The demo event brought together stakeholders and potential end-users with the objective to gather feedback on the toolbox itself.
Following the event, Arlene Bierman from the National Alzheimer’s Plan Act (NAPA) in the USA said: “In the US, I serve on the National Alzheimer’s Plan Act (NAPA) Committee. They will be very interested in this work which I will share with them.”
On the same occasion, Dr Kovacs Eszter from the Semmelweis University, Hungary commented: “[The MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox] seems like a very comprehensive and useful tool, and I would be glad to spend some more time to explore each of its components.”
The Digital Toolbox was further presented at the MULTI-ACT Final Conference, held on 23 March 2021. The full Conference report is available through the MULTI-ACT website. The toolbox introduction video was also launched on this occasion:
The Digital Toolbox has been designed and developed in the context of the H2020 MULTI-ACT project, operationalizing the defined MULTI-ACT CRIF framework, guidelines and associated methods in interactive, intuitive and user-friendly ways, among other offered Web 2.0 features and functionalities, such as online communities support, content uploading and annotation, initiative profiling, etc.
The toolbox is freely accessible through the official website of the MULTI-ACT project: toolbox.multiact.eu. All of its functionalities are available free of charge upon registration. It should be used in conjunction with the CRIF Manual for Research & Innovation actors, which is integrated into the toolbox.
