Abstract
The objectives of this study encompassed three elements to study: (1) the financial resources of the
Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI); (2) the budgetary allocation of HSRI; and (3) the relationship
between budget allocation and outcomes of HSRI. Data were collected from existing documents and studies on health research in Thailand and from financial data and activity reports of HSRI. The results showed
that (1) in the period 2002 and 2007, HSRI received 1,445 million Baht for health systems research, and
budgets from other sources dominated the government budget; (2) the major research themes involved
data systems and knowledge generation; and (3) the outcomes of HSRI activities, in terms of social movement and policy linkage, were related to the themes of research that received funds. The author recommends the following: (1) the private sector should play a greater role in supporting the national health
research system; (2) the efficiency of a research funding agency should be measured by the proportion of
administrative costs to the total expenditures, and the real practices of staff of that agency compared with
the agency’s existing protocol on funding and terminating a project; and (3) the effectiveness of a research
funding agency should be measured through total outcomes of that agency compared with the targets
mentioned in strategies rather than the figure of unit costs per program/project.
