What should we aim for as a society? How can we measure progress? Should we replace GDP or complement it? How can we assess the sustainability of our societies? These questions have risen up the agenda in Europe and across the world in recent years. Several high profile initiatives such as the OECD’s Measuring Progress initiatives, the EU’s GDP and Beyond, the French Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, the UK’s Measuring National Well-Being and Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness have all lit up the debate and many ‘Beyond GDP’ indicators have been proposed.

But what has this proliferation of indicator initiatives meant for actual policy? What impacts have they had? How can the gap between indicators and policy be bridged? These are the central questions of this pan-European 2.5-year-long research and knowledge brokerage project BRAINPOoL, funded by the European Commission FP7 research programme.  The project will assess the impact of Beyond GDP indicator initiatives, and then work with both indicator producers and potential users to help bring Beyond GDP indicators into the policy world. The central assumption of the project is that indicators, if effectively embedded in the policy making process, are an effective transmission mechanism to connect research and policy.

The project will lead to several written outputs, but integral to it will be an ongoing series of meetings and workshops and engagement with potential Beyond GDP indicator users to achieve direct impact. This website will provide information on the project, as well as providing a reference point for information on other initiatives bringing Beyond GDP indicators into the policy realm.

The overall aim of the project is to help increase the influence of Beyond GDP indicators in policy, by improving knowledge transfer between those creating and promoting such indicators and their potential users.

You can contact BRAINPOoL at the following email address: info@brainpoolproject.eu