This paper discusses efforts to improve and adapt a method of evaluation of results and impacts of research programs and its application to the PROSAB program (Basic Sanitation Research Program) sponsored by FINEP, Brazil's federal agency for financing studies and projects. The PROSAB program is executed mainly by universities, although its purpose is to meet the technological needs of Brazilian society in the area of sanitation. The study concentrates on the discussion of the importance of evaluating research programs and on the creation of a methodology that can capture the inherent aspects resulting from those programs. The study was developed along two lines: evaluation of results, which concentrated on measuring the program's inputs and outputs; and evaluation of impacts, which was based on measurements of the intensity and importance of potential or perceived transformations in Brazilian society as a result of the program. The evaluation of results focused on the people executing the program (PROSAB researchers), and the unit of reference for the analysis was the research project. The evaluation of impacts encompassed the entire set of actors related to Brazil's sanitation sector, comprising the research community, sanitation companies, public actors at local and federal levels, and the unit of analysis was the program itself.
Result evaluation; Impact evaluation; Research program; Sanitation; Social needs
